kentuckyfriedscott

Forgive me blog for I have sinned. It has been 11 days since my last submission.

A couple of posts ago I was in Wanaka, with plans to wrap up my NZ trip in Christchurch. The shuttle across the south island was fairly mundane, with the only real highlight being a view from afar of Mount Cook, the highest point in NZ at over 12,000 feet. When I planned my trip five weeks ago I was completely ignorant about a series of earthquakes that had rocked Christchurch in 2011, taking almost 200 lives. After learning about the earthquakes, and with an outbound flight already booked, I was curious to see how the rebuilding effort was going. I guess it takes a lot of money, manpower, and passion to rebuild from such a devastating event. I saw a large section of the city still fenced off but active work underway within its walls. I saw signs and banners that spoke to the passion of locals to reclaim their beloved city. I saw poignant memorials for those who were lost.

With the photos below I don’t mean to paint a picture that the city is hopelessly in ruin. On the contrary, I think a spirit exists in Christchurch that will see it rise from the ashes as a stronger community. You’ll notice a shopping district called Re:START constructed of painted shipping containers. They were modern and angular and pretty darn cool! It speaks to ingenuity of the people and their desire to get back on track. Walking around the city just altered my perspective a bit as I hadn’t even heard about this tragedy. It’s a big world.