Trip: Post #22 Christchurch, Dunedin & Arthur Scargill

You might be wondering what £16 per day gets you in the NZ car rental market? Well, once it's going it is actually fine. A certain level of violence is required to get it into first and second gears and, if there's the slightest incline, it accelerates like a tectonic plate but otherwise, all good...

There was a lot of news coverage here about a few Kiwis who appear to have got a little over-excited in London on Waitangi Day recently and behaved badly after too much booze... Kiwis/London/drinking... Who'd ever have thought those three words would be used in one sentence...

Meanwhile, in Little Wanganui, Waitangi celebrations were much more sedate although I must draw your attention to the very exciting new novelty addition for this year, not to mention the raffle prize extraordinaire! I didn't win.

Christchurch was the next stop. I'd been unsure about visiting the city centre and, in effect, being a tourist to other people's misfortune but around and about NZ I'd met several people from C'Church (all were taking a week or two vacation to "get away from it all") and they would always urge me, in their words, to go see what Mother Nature can do. Meeting these people around the country had often been quite emotional; some had lost almost everything. One person I met was left with the clothes they were wearing and an umbrella...

The big difficulty seems to be not only the lasting damage from the big quakes in late 2010 and then Feb 2011 but just how protracted the further quakes and aftershocks are. Every time they feel like they are starting to move forward the city gets hit again and the uncertainty means that insurance companies are reluctant to pay out for rebuilds. There are still people who have not been let back into their homes, for over a year now, and there are plenty of people still living with their families in motels. Crazy.

The 'Red Zone' above is the area that was either destroyed or needs to be demolished. The whole zone is fenced off and you can't get in. Businesses or homes in 'Green Zones' are confirmed to be structurally sound but the big problems are for people in 'Orange Zones' where, a year later, because the task is so vast, their buildings are yet to be signed off or condemned. They are completely in limbo and can't even leave, for a new life somewhere else, if they want to as they are potentially still waiting for insurance pay outs for buildings/possessions etc. It's one big, complicated mess! Some think the city should be rebuilt; some think it should be forgotten. All very sad but wandering about the city, you do feel the resilience and positive attitudes of many here.

Pretty much every commercial building I saw, outside the Red Zone, is empty and daubed with the spray can paint used last year to confirm that no one was left inside. If this city is to be rebuilt it is years and years away from completion. Still the aftershocks go on with around half a dozen a day. You can always google for photo's if you want and see what happens on a daily basis at www.christchurchquakemap.co.nz

So from here it was south to the very charming town/city of Dunedin. There's about 120,000 people here and 22% are students. Lots of cafes, bars etc etc. It has deep Scottish roots with vague Scot accents, kilt shops and even the dulcet tones on the streets of cats being strangled. Sorry, bagpipes. The city was settled by some Scottish Christians who were unhappy with the debauched direction that other Christians were heading in, back home in Edinburgh. So in the 1800's Dunedin was built as a 'copy' of Edinburgh. It's very nice...

...rather grand railway station!

And my favourite place, Alley Cantina (of course)...

From Dunedin it was further south to Invercargill (every time I say that name, I think of Arthur Scargill for some odd reason) via a side trip into central Otago and then back up the coast, through the Catlins, to return to Christchurch.

Lots of good walks...

And, continued, beautiful scenery...

I was even lucky enough to be able to watch two whales for a while that were maybe 3-400 metres off the south coast. Amazing.

I don't know why I found this sign so entertaining...

Maybe because the dog just laid an egg?

Finally, a couple of pics from a couple of weeks ago when I took a great walk at the start of the Heaphy Track...