29/1/2012 I was heading to Kaikoura for two days on my way north and even though the weather wasn’t great when I arrived, it was glorious the day after. It’s one of my favourite spots in New Zealand and I’ll always have a soft spot for it. Lesley drove me to the bus stop at… Read more »
28/1/2012 Before I finish this part of the Christchurch blog, I think I should mention the year’s anniversary of the February 22nd 2011 quake. On that fateful day, many people went to work and never came back, others lost loved ones and friends. It was a time for Christchurch to remember and grieve but also… Read more »
28/1/2012 An Italian friend of mine, Monica, living in Amsterdam, was here in Christchurch doing an intensive yoga course for a month. We decided to meet up in the city and have a catch up. It was great to be able to say that a month ago, we met up in Shape Café in Amsterdam… Read more »
This is week two of the New Zealand 2012 blog. There are ten posts this week, so more for you to read and of course, more photos to see. These posts show my view of Christchurch in January this year, still with a lot of devastation. I spoke to quite a few people while I… Read more »
27/1/2012 I got talking to Effie Vlanderen, a friend of Lesley’s, about her experiences of the earthquakes. I also wanted to add this interview into the article I was going to write. Effie Vlanderen, who is originally from Wieringermeer, Netherlands, lives with her husband, Henk, from Amsterdam, in Redwood, a suburb north of Christchurch city… Read more »
26/1/2012 Lesley and I drove out to Dallington Road, in the east of Christchurch, by the Avon river. A lot of houses here had sunk into the ground due to the earthquake in February and were sitting there empty, with their gardens overgrown with weeds. Because most of these houses or land had been compromised… Read more »
26/1/2012 On Thursday morning I went to Beckenham, a suburb south of Christchurch city centre, to talk to Miriam Fisher, about her experiences of the February earthquake. It was one of the interviews that I had planned to add into the article I was writing about Christchurch. Miriam is a crafter and her husband is… Read more »
25/1/2012 On Wednesday I took the trip out to Akaroa. I had tried before, on previous trips to NZ, to get to Akaroa but for different reasons didn’t manage it. So I was looking forward to the trip. I decided to do the Black Cat Harbour Cruise, which takes you out on a catamaran into… Read more »
24/1/2012 That evening, Lesley, Effie (a friend of Lesley’s) and I went to the cinema in Northlands Mall to see the film “When A City Falls”. It’s a feature documentary made by Gerard Smyth about the Christchurch earthquakes. It’s a very good film, well made and very moving. It starts off with how Christchurch was… Read more »
24/1/2012 What had a lot of impact on me, was seeing the Catholic Cathedral on Barbados Street in a state of ruin. It sustained a lot of damage in the February earthquake. It’s still standing but at the side, there are lots of containers propping up the walls. It looks so desolate but there’s a… Read more »
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