Saturday 16 February

Christchurch
I suppose the impact of events never really hits you until you se them for yourself. The devastation in Christchurch is indescribable. The series of earthquakes in 2010 and 2011 when 186 people died has left the centre of the city a mass of rubble. I spoke to a Kiwi couple from Christchurch when we were at Alexandra and they told me that the heartache just goes on and on, as almost every week it is decided that it will not be able to save yet another historic building, it is too unsafe to repair and it will have to be demolished. We saw that for ourselves, some building clad in scaffolding and supports, while menacing machinery nibbled away at the destruction of others. However in the very centre a project has been set up called 'Re: Start, it opened yesterday. It was buzzing, lots of small stalls and food kiosks. We decided to eat there and had a very good Gyros from Dimitri's Souvlaki van. We are on a commercial Kiwi site tonight, so hot shower and done some washing.