Akaroa and Christchurch City Sights

Our next stop in New Zealand was the port of Akaroa.  We were only about an hour or so from Christchurch, so we decided to take a shuttle bus to Christchurch to see those sights as well!

As we took off for Christchurch, the route provided a lovely view of the port of Akaroa.  The town of Akaroa is a small town on the Banks Peninsula of the Canterbury Region of the South Island of New Zealand.  FYI – New Zealand is made up of 2 large islands – North and South Islands and several smaller islands.

On the way to Christchurch, we drove by the Southern Alps of New Zealand.  Beautiful, aren’t they?  It’s earlier in the spring down in New Zealand (Southern Hemisphere), altho these mountains are so high, I’m not certain if the snow completely melts on the top.

Along the way, we also saw some beautiful New Zealand landscapes.  There is an old saying about New Zealand – the sheep outnumber the people who live there.  While the number of sheep are declining, due to cattle and horses being raised on the islands, there are still 5 sheep for every person there!

When we got to Christchurch, the first thing we decided to do was to ride the hop-on, hop-off trolley there to get an idea of what the sights were and then decide which to check out in greater detail.  One of the sights from the trolley was this tribute to New Zealand’s fallen soldiers.  New Zealand sent troops in all the major wars – WWI, WWII, Korean War and the Vietnam War, in addition to their own internal wars.

One of the lovely pieces of architecture in Christchurch is the current Central Art Gallery.  This building originally housed Canterbury University, originally called Canterbury College, founded in 1873.  In 1961, it became an independent university and moved out of these neo-gothic structures.  

Part of this building was damaged in the 2010 and 2011 Canterbury earthquakes.  Most of the building is able to still be used, but there are some remaining signs of the earthquake damage.  New Zealand is within what is called the Ring of Fire, a ring of very active earthquakes.  Alaska and California are also part of this Ring of Fire.

This damaged clock tower is another reminder of the damage of those earthquakes.  The 2010 earthquake was a 7.1 earthquake, but happened during the middle of the night, and was a lateral earthquake.  The earth shifted from side to side, but there wasn’t much visible damage and no deaths. This earthquake and its aftershocks did weaken the buildings in Christchurch and made the second earthquake much more damaging.  

The second earthquake hit on February 22, 2011, just before 1pm.   It was centered just over a mile away from the port town of Lyttleton and about 6 miles southeast of the center of Christchurch.  There was significant damage as was particularly evident at Christ Church Cathedral.  It was New Zealand’s fifth-deadliest disaster, killing 185 people.  The port town of Lyttleton used to be the port where the cruise ships docked, and our bus guide told us of the shuttle he was bringing back to the ship when the quake hit.  He could not pull onto the formal dock, because it had cracked enough from the quake to make it unstable for vehicles.  He had to let off the sightseers on the far end of the dock, and they literally ran to the safety of the ship.  They have been working to restore the port at Lyttleton, but as of the time of our cruise, it still could not accept the cruise ships.  They are hoping that within the next year or so, cruise ships will again begin to use that port.

This scene was especially saddening to me.  It’s of one of the entrances to the Christ Church Cathedral.  In our travels, most of the churches we came across were open to the public throughout the day.  The bar across the entrance of this cathedral just seems to be the antithesis of what the churches and cathedrals in New Zealand stand for.  The plan for this cathedral is to be rebuilt to look as much like the original as possible.  They hope to retain and reuse as many of the original materials as they can and recreate much of the same design on both the interior and exterior.  Unfortunately, more than 7 ½ years after the second earthquake, significant work has yet to begin.  All of the scaffolding, etc. that is there is trying to keep the building standing.  Why the delay?  The trolley guides could only offer one reason – financing.  But, all of Christchurch is not this depressing.  In my next post, you’ll see some of the beauty of a special place in Christchurch.

Enjoy!