The drive this morning was not very far as we were only going from Glentunnel to Christchurch which was about 50 kilometers. However we managed to take a little longer than normal as we went looking for the epicenter of the earthquake that hit here on September 4, 2010. We didn't find it and we got lost. Thanks to a good Samaritan, who was wondering why we were stopped in the middle of a country road, we were able to get on track and we made it into Christchurch without any further incident.
We stayed three days in Christchurch but weren't all that active. The weather was undecided on what it wanted to do as it rained the first day and was unbelievably hot the next. We did manage to spend the hot day downtown. We left the camper in the holiday park and took the local transit. The downtown is a very active place with lots going on. There were street performers, street vendors and food vendors all within the main square.
While we were downtown we did learn that Christchurch is the largest city in the South Island and the second largest in New Zealand. It has a population of just under 400,000 urban and rural residents. On September 4, 2010 it was hit with a 7.1 earthquake that did 4 Billion Dollars damage. The most amazing aspect with an earthquake of that magnitude and with that much damage, there were no fatalities.
The downtown was in pretty good condition considering that the epicenter was only twenty miles down the road.
There were signs of the destruction but the city has done a very good job cleaning up the mess that was left after the earthquake. It is even more remarkable when you consider that they have had over 5000 aftershocks with some of them being in the 4.8 to 5.1 range.
as an exkiwi resident in London thanks for the memories.Great pics.
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