Spring is So Nearly Sprung! - Part Two

Spring is So Nearly Sprung! - Part Two

The Christchurch Chronicles Continue....

I had read somewhere that the seaside towns of New Brighton and Sumner had both suffered quite badly with liquefaction after the 2011 earthquake and while Sumner had made a great recovery, New Brighton was still a bit of a ghost town. As both of these towns are only two buses away from Papanui we waited for some fine days and went exploring. We had driven to New Brighton when we left Christchurch last time but only walked along the beach and out on the pier. As we arrived by bus this time we were able to walk past all the closed down, boarded up shops, the supermarket and pubs. The shops that are open did not look like they enjoyed much foot traffic. It is quite sad.

In comparison, Sumner is thriving. The beach, shops and eateries were busy and well patronised. As we walked around the coast we discovered that the next beach around was called Scarborough Beach - just like where James and Bec live in Perth. Of course we had to take a photo of that sign to share with them. We stopped for lunch at a place called The Beach Bar which is right on the sand. As we were shown to our table I thought some kid had left a water pistol on the table, then I noticed that all the tables had water pistols on them. Having experienced in Nelson the exuberance of the seagulls to get to any food left on a table before the serving staff could clear it we were pretty sure that these water pistols were “Seagull Repellents”. Just after we sat down the people at the table across from us got up to leave and the table erupted with seagulls fighting for the last chip - oh yes, we could see the advantage of having water pistols primed and ready to go on every table.

Our next bus trip was back into Christchurch city so we could go to Quake City, the museum dedicated to the February 2011 earthquake. The very best part of this exhibition was sitting and watching the video of some of the survivors telling their stories and what they were doing at 12:51 pm on 22 February 2011. There were school teachers, policemen trapped under the courts with dangerous criminals to deal with, lawyers trapped on the third floor of collapsed building, Mums trying to get to their children, rescue workers trying to free people trapped under rubble - the stories were just about ordinary people who suddenly were thrown in to the most horrific scenario you can imagine and how many of them became heroes. As Aucklanders, we may THINK we know what Christchurch went through but after seeing this museum I have realised we have absolutely no idea how much this city has suffered. HUGE respect!!

The nice thing about being in Christchurch without COVID is being able to catch up with family. My Great niece, Sophie, who got married here the last time we were in Christchurch is a ‘bit of a shopper’ so I contacted her to see if she would like a girly day out. Even though I had my Gold Card poised ready for a bus trip Soph picked me up and we headed to the shops. Although I didn’t get all the things on my list, it was a great morning just catching up and wandering through malls I hadn’t visited before. Although it was one week early, I did manage to shout Sophie to a birthday lunch. 

Erron also got in contact again and we arranged to meet in the city for dinner. The exciting thing about this dinner was we were going to be introduced to Erron’s new lady, Bianca. We bonded with Bianca very quickly. Not only are Erron and Bianca good together but she is super friendly and super chatty so she instantly felt like one of the family. We went to the Kaiser Brew Garden for dinner and  I managed to get a photo of Erron where he isn’t flipping the bird - at last!. As you would expect they serve steins of beer which may have been the  undoing of Erron and Dave. The next morning though, Erron still went for an 8k run around Hagley, Bianca and I enjoyed a very springish walk through the park and Dave remained in the motorhome feeling a little bit poorly.

While we were at dinner Erron suggested that we should check out the Airforce Museum in Wigram which turned out to be a very easy bus trip away involving two buses. The entry is free to New Zealanders and it is full of anecdotes and memories from real people. It took us ages to see everything, reading the stories and experiencing the interactive exhibits. The planes on display were very awesome and we would love to come back when they have added one of New Zealand’s original C-130 Hercules to their collection.

We have had a mixed bag of weather while in Christchurch and have watched the trees in the holiday park go from completely bare to well on their way to green. We have made full use of our Gold Cards on the buses and had public transport adventures most days. One of these took us to the magnificent Margaret Mahy Playground which is huge with some challenging but safe equipment and heaps of water play. Oh to be a kid again. We also found a rather charming pub called The Church Brew Pub so thought I would leave you with some photos of our day in church.