Rakaia Gorge

After four days in Christchurch, sorting, provisioning, packing the car, sightseeing, we headed into the interior. Rakaia Gorge is said to be New Zealand's finest river walk, and, we thought, a good place to begin getting our legs back into practice. We stayed at campground and walked a few miles into the gorge and back.

Christchurch sunset; the Maori called New Zealand Aotearoa,
"Land of the Long White Cloud"

The Rakaia river and gorge, and huge outwash; we are in
the foothills east of the Southern Alps, an area of great
rivers and even greater lakes

A bit of the terrain, now well past spring floods

Looking up-river toward the foothills

Christchurch's Canterbury Museum

Oddly, most of the historic statues and
monuments survived; here, Captain Cook

Beautiful art nouveau fountain in the city's Hagley Park

One of the largest city parks in this part of the world

The 1870 Canterbury Museum apparently suffered little
damage

The excellent collection is divided between Maori culture
and that of the British colonists

Thus

And thus; Maori ceremonial weapons and items

Christchurch was organized by the Canterbury
Association, headed by the archbishop, to build
a city that would exemplify Victorian virtues

Such as...exploitation, theft, imperialism...

Among the many impressive artifacts of the
colonists

A glass sailing ship; the glass collection was all the more
impressive for having survived the tremors

More of the collection

Sewing machine and attachments

Light-weight typewriter

One for you, Tawana

Christchurch Rebuilding

New Regent Street, surrounded by destruction, but still going strong

Gandalf the All-Black is a fixture there

And his car; fortunately, New Zealand quirkiness is still alive and well, even in
Christchurch; I forgot to ask him if it's called Janus

South Island image

Resurgence, resilience, etc.

Many downtown merchants have hunkered down to business in containers...
new meaning for Container Store

Thus

And thus, our favorite NZ outdoor store

Container bank

But life goes on...kayaking and punting on the Avon

Outdoor sculpture; Christchurch artists have made many important statements
of resurgence

The "Cardboard Cathedral," so-called because of its unusual building materials,
quickly erected to replace the lost cathedral

Facade

Interior

New Zealand orange tree, in a site of devastation

Still a beautiful place; rebuilding plans calls for low-rise structures and plenty
of green space...

Christchurch Devastation

New Zealand's 3rd largest city (after Auckland and Wellington), beautiful Christchurch was devastated by a series of earthquakes in 2010 and 2011. The central business district and historic center were hardest hit. Nearly 200 people were killed and some 20-30 billion dollars of damage done. Christchurch was never a great tourism destination, just a wonderful place to work and live, it is said, New Zealand's "most British" city. The devastation, even after 3 years, is heart-breaking. But the resurgence is equally impressive.

Near the city center

"Rebuild Tours"...a bus tour of the devastation and the
rebuilding

Christchurch's cathedral; the tower at its west end collapsed,
and now the whole building has been declared unsalvageable

"Let these stone speak of a love that endures forever"

Cathedral west

Buildings old and new were damaged, including
this modern high-rise, now closed

And this newer building

A high water table and liquefaction has added to the problems

Many of the older neo-Gothic buildings were damaged,
but this bit of Government House apparently will survive

The new-looking central library, damaged and closed;
impossible to tell those buildings awaiting demolition from
those awaiting repair

And yet another high rise

Site of another destroyed church

An historical facade being supported (?)

And an old theater destroyed...

Mode Of Travel

So our mode of travel in NZ will be by rental car, tent, hostel, and motel. Probably a few huts on the tramps, too. Pictured below is our new rig, at our first campsite, at South New Brighton Beach, east of Christchurch. Despite two days at a motel earlier, it will take us some time to get the new routine sorted out. We haven't done much tent-camping in recent years...

In the past, our rigs warranted a name (e.g., the Millennium
Bongo); we haven't thought of anything yet for this one...
maybe something about shades of grey...

Welcome to New Zealand!

Gandalf the All Black does a haka,
welcoming us to New Zealand (on
New Regent Street, Christchurch); note he's
not Gandalf the Grey nor Gandalf the White
...in this land of the Champions of the
World All Blacks, he's Gandalf the All Black

South By Southwest*

So on January 9^th our stay in DC came to an end. We had thought we might be able to do more sightseeing in a month's time, but family, grandparenting, Christmas, visits with relatives and friends, helping Rachel and Will with the new house, miserable cold weather (the heralded Arctic Vortex), and the inevitable planning/provisioning/packing, all conspired to limit our travel adventures in Washington. No regrets, however, as we had a great time with all the above. Except the Arctic Vortex.

I did manage to read a bit, Gottfried Wagner's Twilight of the Wagners—Rebecca gave me a copy of Stephen Fry's wonderful Wagner and Me DVD for Christmas—and both The Thin Man and The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hamett. And, oh yes, we saw quite a few movies, The Desolation of Smaug, in preparation for visiting NZ (and LA); and also Cast Away and Blue Lagoon in preparation for visiting to Fiji. Scenery, you know. So Vicki said. Anyhow, we'll be in DC again, no doubt, and can catch up then on the sightseeing.

January 9^th we jetted from National to Atlanta and then to the City of Angels (“I didn't find it to be that exactly, but I'll allow there are some nice folks there...”) and spent the night in the historic (seriously) LAX Travelodge...don't want to miss the next stage of our travels, the January 10^th flight from LA to Fiji and then New Zealand.

Catchya further on down the trail...in Christchurch. Bula bula!

*and AirTrans and Fiji Airways (formerly Air Pacific); the cabin crew on the SW flight was absolutely up to the old standard of hilarity "we're dimming the cabin lights now because we like to go really, really fast in the dark when we take off," etc.