Christchurch - Quake Damage

Rachel and John kindly took us on a tour of central Christchurch.  It was the first time for me to see the town since the two big earthquakes:  the M7.1 Darfield Earthquake on 4-Sep-2010 (link) centered 40km west of Christchurch, and the even more destructive M6.3 on 22-Feb-2011 centered just 10km from the city-center at the very shallow depth of 5km (link).

I remembered central Christchurch as a fairly built-up city with a mix of loverly old stone heritage buildings, several city blocks of large modern office-blocks and hotels, and surrounding of streets of low-rise brick shops.    But the cityscape I remember is now almost entirely gone.

Central Christchurch pre-quake

The symbol of Christchurch was the stone cathedral in the middle of Cathedral Square.  The square was surrounded on all sides by midsize buildings (c. 10 stories) as you can see in the photo above.

Christchurch Cathedral before 2011

In the Feb-2011 earthquake, the Cathedral spire and part of the nave famously collapsed, as did many other masonry heritage buildings.   The unreinforced masonry facades of many of the older shops also collapsed into the streets, which caused many fatalities.

Christchurch Cathedral today 

Of the modern buildings, most survived structurally intact with two notable exceptions:  the 6-story CTV building and the 4-story PGG House which both collapsed, killing 115 and 18 people respectively, out of the total of 185 fatalities.  The CTV building was later found to have an unsafe design which should never have been approved.

Cental-city block : almost entirely demolished

What I hadn't appreciated until I visited the city, was that most of the modern buildings were so badly damaged that they later had to be demolished.   For example, out of Christchurch's 51 tallest buildings pre-quake (10-stories+),  only 11 will be retained and 3 more are still under review.   The remaining 37 have been demolished (see link).

43 of the 51 Christchurch high-rises colour-coded
with their status shown as of May 2013 (link)

The shallow quakes caused violent shaking (MM IX):  "the peak ground acceleration (PGA) in central Christchurch exceeded 1.8g (i.e. 1.8 times the acceleration of gravity), with the highest recording 2.2g (wiki link).   These accelerations are among the strongest recorded worldwide (see PGA link) and exceeded the 'maximum considered event' (MCE) underlying NZs tough building code.     

Cathedral Square from the Gloucester Rd bridge

So when we visited the city center I was shocked to see block after block where almost every building had gone.    The photo above shows Cathedral Square from the Gloucester Road bridge over the Avon - right through what was the heart of the city (from 5 o'clock to 10 o'clock in the photos above).   Vacant lots where I remembered big hotels and office blocks.

Foundations of demolished tower block

Almost all the Christchurch buildings I remembered have gone, with the exception some half-collapsed heritage buildings retained awaiting decisions (and funds) for possible restoration.

Collapsed heritage building and mural

Fortunately one of my favorite heritage buildings, the Arts Center Complex, seems to have mainly survived and be on its way towards restoration.  

Arts Center Restoration

A number of large murals have been installed on the backs or sides of the few buildings that have been retained.  And a few of the vacant lots have been turned into parks.  

Mural and vacant lot from
demolished building

Further out from the city center its a similar story.   Most of the old low-rise unreinforced masonry shops have gone, with just a few left presumably awaiting demolition or reinforcement.

Collapsed facades, demoloshed shops

It was a very depressing picture.  Although it was fascinating, I was also so saddened that I eventually I couldn't bear to see any more.

We had a nice lunch in the tram-way building.   It was good to see the Christchurch Trams is running again.    There was a nice Japanese restaurant, and Rika ordered oysters of course.

Bluff Oysters Japanese style

After lunch Rach and John took us to a temporary shopping mall that had ingeniously been build using shipper containers.  It was actually very pleasant and in the sun, and somehow seemed to retain the Christchurch feeling I remembered.

Temporary shopping mall made with shipping containers

It was impressive to see  the resilience of the Christchurch people.    And in a couple of places we could see new buildings being constructed.  But much less rebuilding than I expected considering it is now 4 years-on.

Hole-in-the-wall

But this got me thinking about the earthquake risk in Tokyo, which is due for a large earthquake (like the 1923 one).  The Japanese are pretty confident in their engineering and tough building standards, so most buildings should avoid collapse.  But what would be the consequences if half or more need to be demolished and replaced?  

Dunedin - Otago Peninsula

On Tuesday we went for a day-trip to the Otago Peninsula.   This is a magical place created 12m years ago by wizards, and populated by elves and pixies until the first humans arrived just 700 years ago.

Video:  Otago Harbour panoramas

First stop was MacAndrew Bay where we mad an impromptu visit to an art exhibition in the village hall.

MacAndrew Bay

The Peninsula has always been a popular place for artists to live, and also a source of inspiration.   So I wasn't surprised to see that the variety and quality of the artwork was high.

Art Exhibition

I loved this cake - actually it is a demonstration piece made in plastic, but you can order an edible version in marzipan.    I bought a nice pastel landscape of Te Rauone Beach (see below).

Seagull Cake

Then on to Portobello, where I once lived as a student in the days before it was connected to the town  sewerage system.  (You had to use a chemical toilet and bury the treated poo in the garden.  Which rather put me off hosting large dinner-parties).

Portobello and Harbour Cone

Portobello is a little village snuggled at the base of the iconic Harbour Cone (1033'), or 'Harbour Tit' as the locals call it.

'Harbour Tit'

It is hard to look at the landscape of the Peninsula without thinking of the work of local artist Robin White, whose apparently simple screen prints somehow managed to nail the colours and landforms.

Harbour Cone by Robin White (1972)

I've always loved her work, and regret not buying one when I had the chance.  

White Oystercatcher and
Harbour Cone by Robin White

These days, one of the most well-known Portobello artists is 'Happy Hens', who spotted a gap in the market for hand-painted ceramic chickens.  Who would have guessed this would be so successful?

Amazingly my family all own one.   And Rika had bought one for Baba, but since Hannah had accidentally broken it, Rika was happy to take the opportunity to resupply...

... while Hannah played in the playground.

We then carried on to Tairoa Head at the end of the peninsula.   Tairoa Head (wiki link) has several notable sights including the famous Royal Albatross colony (which we visited with Baba in 2008, blog link).   It also has old fortifications similar to those in Hong Kong including an Armstrong disappearing gun installed in the 1880s to defend Dunedin from the perceived Russian threat (!).

Waikouaiti  Coast from Tairoa Head

But this time we visited the local sheep-farm which runs a side-business in eco-tourism called Natures Wonders (website link).   They have done a really good job.  We had coffee and snacks at the visitors center which makes the most of the terrific location and the views across Blueskin Bay to the equally magical landscape of the Waikouaiti Coast (another of my favorite places).

Then we were taken around the farm on the cool Argo all-terrain-vehicles.   This was my first time to see the Peninsula and Harbour from the summit of the headland.

Otakau and the outer Otago Harbour 

Until 1840 the headland was occupied by fortified village (Pa) of the Ngai Tahu tribe called Pukekura.   On the flat land below is the important village and marae of Otakau (wiki link),  from which the province of Otago got its name.   The maori had arrived around 1300 initially hunting giant Moa, which became extinct around 1500.

West towards Aramoana, and Blusekin Bay (right)

The first European settlement in Otago was the Weller Brothers whaling station established at Otakou in 1831 (link), followed by another near Waikouaiti in 1837 (link), although sealers has been active along to coast from 1809.  (See this link for an interesing account of the often fraught interactions between local maori and the early europeans).

By 1840 the formerly huge seal and whale populations had been largely destroyed.   Fortunately, they avoided extinction.   Whale populations have gradually recovered and they are now often seen off the heads.

Pipikaretu Beach

In fact, Tairoa Head is now a haven for wildlife, especially birds, partly because of extensive fencing and traps to control pests like rats, cats, stoats and weasels which normally prey on vulnerable birds, eggs and juveniles.

Video:  Natures Wonders Tour:

The tour took us down to the beach where a colony of NZ seals were resting.  Many of the seals were pups laying-up while their mothers went fishing.   The guide told us that only 30% of seals make it to maturity, as sharks and Orcas are very fond of eating Seal McNuggets.

The seals were very relaxed around humans and we could observe them up-close.

NZ Fur Seal

Then on to penguin beach where little-blue penguins hatch in the sandy scrub at the bottom of the cliffs.   We couldn't see any penguins on the beach this time, but the guide opened some small doors in the side of the 'hide', and we could see small baby penguins nesting.

Penguin nests, Penguin Beach

One of the most amazing sights fro me was large dark patches on the surface of the see far off the headland.  These are schools of fish,  driven to the surface by packs of dolphins or whales, which then attract flocks of sea-birds.

Schools of fish off Tairoa Head

I'd never seen anything like it, and was rather surprised by the bio-mass of fish that these blobs must represent.

Schools of fish

As we left the headland the weather brightened up and the landscape became very picturesque.

Aramoana and outer Otago Harbor from Tairoa Head 

Video:  Tairoa Head Panorama

On the way back home we stopped at Te Rauone Beach near Otakou, the subject of the pastel landscape I'd just bought.

Te Rauone Beach

As you can see by comparing the drawing with the photo above, the artist has moved the headland in the background south by about 500m to improve the composition.

Te Rauone Beach by
Cathryn Shemansky

We had promised that Hannah could play on the small beach...

Granny and Grandad 

But when we got there we found it occupied by a sunbathing sealion.

Sealion sunbathing at Te Rauone beach

So we went back to MacAndrew Bay, which has everything a 7-year-old needs.  Namely a good playground...

MacAndrew Bay playground 

... a nice beach...

MacAndrew Bay beach

...and Tip-Top ice-creams.

Another magical Peninsula day.

Dunedin - Moana Pool

Hannah loves visiting Dunedin and staying with Granny and Granddad.     The main highlight for her is visiting Moana Pool.  

Moana Pool was built in the 1960s and far surpasses any of the facilities in London or Hong Kong.  The original 1960s design included an Olympic 50m pool, a diving pool and learners pool, where I was taught to swim by the famous coach Duncan Laing (link).

Moana Pool was then extended several times adding 2 hydro-slides, an new diving pool / 25m lap pool.  And then a large play-pool area with features like a wave machine, circular fast-current course, and a spa pool where adults can soak while they watch their children.

I took the opportunity to have a swimming lesson.  Since my last lesson in Moana pool in c. 2011, I've been trying to improve my front crawl by following the advice from the Australian website 'Swim Smooth', and now normally cover 3km in an hour.   I was quite pleased when the coach said almost every aspect (stoke, balance, timing) is very sound.  He made just one correction (to my entry) which immediately improved my power.   Apparently after this the technical changes would be quite esoteric.  So my next goals are to perfect my tumble turn, and to learn a decent beast-stoke.

For Hannah, the highlight of Moana Pool is the hydro-slide.  There are 2 - 'fast' and 'slightly-less-fast' which are are both long and twisty.

Hannah likes to go down the slides with me (actually on top of me).

Or have races.   This requires some technique to lying down and lean into the bends to reduce friction.  But I sometimes let Hannah win.

And well done to Granddad for taking these photos at the pool for us without getting arrested.