It was a beautiful 3.5 hour ferry ride down to the South Island…92k via the ferry…26k as the shark swims.  Some of the mountainous area near Picton is arid, but makes for an interesting contrast with a mix of some lush areas.

Arguably one of the world’s most beautiful ferry rides.  The area south of Picton, the Marlborough region, is dotted with vineyards and wineries…and, of course, sheep.  The countries only remaining salt ponds are nearby as well, south of Blenheim on Lake Grassmere.  The pink ponds and huge piles of salt supply over half of New Zealand’s needs (for more on the process click here).

We made a stop along the way to view some seals.  We were told to stop at Ohua Beach and hike to the falls.  However, we stopped just before the falls and what we saw was amazing.  Hundreds of seals, pups to big mamas!  Most of them were sleeping on the rocks, some on their backs, some on their stomachs.

We drove on and stopped at the falls…no seals, a few at the beach.  There were so many people that had stopped, I think it spooked the seals up the beach.

We arrived in Christchurch early Sunday evening.  We settled into our new residence for the month of February and ventured around the corner to The Fitz Bar and Grill for a good meal and to watch a little NZ All Blacks rugby match.  Finally found some NZ residents that got excited about sports!  I must say rugby is a lot more action packed than American football.  The play is relatively continuous versus a 10 second play and 25 to 30 seconds in between!  

Since we are here for a month and having been eating at every restaurant in every city so far (Wellington apparently has more restaurants, cafes and bars per capita than anywhere else in the world!), we decided to join the YMCA gym!   We are staying on Hereford Street in Christchurch and the YMCA is a couple km down Hereford St in the city center.  

As we started walking down the street, the damaged city from the 2010 and 2011 quakes was all around us.  We were both overwhelmed and felt a heavy heart for this city and its people.  Five years later, and to us, the damage seemed so vast.  As of February 2015, 1,240 buildings in the city centre have been demolished… 80 percent of the city centre buildings!  

Our walk back home included a walk through an incredible art exhibit focused on Street Art (see link and additional pictures below).  The exhibit displayed at the YMCA was created by renowned street artists.  The artists have also worked across the city streets transforming blank walls into great works of art. 

The trek home also briefly took us through the entrance of beautiful Hagley Park, past the heavily damaged Cathedral Square and by the Cardboard Cathedral (yes, a Cathedral constructed after the quakes that uses 24 inch cardboard tubes as part of the roofing frame and shipping containers as the walls).

Our next day after our first gym workout, we visited the Christchurch Botanic Garden.  It is filled with native New Zealand plants, imported plants, and an impressive rose garden.  Easy to see why Christchurch is referred to as the Garden City!  The garden is surrounded by Hagley Park, half the size of NY Central Park and is a focus for summer activities, concerts, music, picnics, playgrounds, and swimming.  

We also took a “Free” Walking Tour. It is a two hour guided walk around the city.  We have done these tours around the world – Santiago, Buenos Aires, Barcelona and Madrid.  These are a great way to learn a bit about the culture and history of a city.  Michael, a Christchurch local did an excellent tour.  Much of the tour focused on the 2010 and 2011 quakes. The tour at times was emotional, particularly at the site of the CTV building collapse that killed 115 people out of the 185 killed in the February 2011, 6.3 quake.  Michael read a book excerpt that quoted a Japanese visitor who survived the building collapse and shared her thoughts as she lay trapped amid the rubble and aftershocks until she was eventually rescued. This quake was more devastating than the September 2010, 7.1 quake because it was at half the depth and a bit closer to the city center. 

On a lighter note, in one vacant lot the city has a “Dance O Mat”. The Dance-O-Mat is a coin operated dance floor that anyone can use. It uses an ex-laundromat washing machine to power four speakers which surround a custom-made dance floor.  It is part of a “gap filler” project that makes innovate community oriented use of vacant lots in the city.  It has had hundreds of hours of use and you can see a demo from our walk by clicking here!

The city has made widespread innovative use of shipping containers.  The Re:START Mall has dozens of businesses that are housed in colorful shipping containers,  This allowed for businesses to quickly come online after the quakes that otherwise would have taken years to build.  Shipping containers are also used to help support damaged buildings, walls and facades until they can be used in new buildings.

We saw one area of the city center that remains that shows what the city streets generally looked like prior to the quakes.  Now there is block after block of empty lots, remaining uninhabitable buildings and cranes and redevelopment.  As we continue our exploration of Christchurch, it has become very easy to see what a beautiful city this was, continues to be, and will be.  It is interesting to see a city in transition.  We are looking forward to more exploration of this city and the surrounding area!

See below for a few more pics!