I was enormously well received, except where I wasn't. Like that one time in Queenstown, but I probably won't go into that in any great detail. One travelled with one’s old school friend, who is not old at all but quite youngish like oneself.
We began our journey through Middle Earth in the beautiful city of Christchurch, that place that decided to build itself directly on top of the Pacific and the Endo-Australian tectonic plates. That crazy town town straddles both dem plates, a planning strategy that straddles the boundaries of completely nuts and the worst idea ever. We did a little tour of the city of Christchurch, which was devastated in the 2011 earthquake.
This:
About 30% of the city's buildings are still standing and operational, while the rest have either been razed or are being held up with all manner of scaffolding. It seems most businesses have either relocated to other premises outside the city or have moved on from Christchurch altogether.
Although, as if often the case in cities devastated by hardship, innovation and industriousness have fashioned a new settlement.
The brains trust of the Christchurch city Re:START project have developed a village of funky, colourful shipping containers that will temporarily house a multitude of businesses, including designer shops and coffee shops, until those businesses decide on more permanent dwellings. It looks pretty impressive and adds much needed colour to a once beautiful city that is recovering from immense loss.
I seem to be out of blog practice, which will make charting the other eight days interesting.
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