Christchurch

We were in Christchurch for a week, staying with our friends Tim and Judith Bell.  We spent much of our time reconnecting with them and others from our visit two years ago – people from the university, from the Farandol folk dancing group, and from Cindy’s volunteer work.  The Bell family is very musical, so we ended up at a violin recital and a boys’ choir concert.  The violin recital was especially notable – the violinist, Hilary Hayes, is the girlfriend of one of the Bells’ sons, and she is a rapidly rising talent at nineteen years old.  She plays with the Christchurch and New Zealand Symphony Orchestras and performs on an 1843 Italian violin loaned by the spouse of a former concertmaster in Wellington.

On Saturday we got to be part of a special event.  Judith teaches at a music school, and she had organized a trip for her students to a large arena for a showing of the movie “Pirates of the Caribbean – Curse of the Black Pearl” with live music provided by the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra.  Our group got a backstage technical tour with the sound and video technicians, and we stayed for a dress rehearsal of the movie and music.  The conductor, orchestra and technical staff did an excellent job blending the video, music and sound effects.

On Monday five of us headed out of town for a bike ride on a converted trail south of Christchurch.  It rained on us while we were driving out there, but the skies cleared while we biked.  The first segment to Little River was very windy, but it calmed down on the way back.  We also got in a hike (tramp) on a short but lush track nearby.  It was fun to do some biking and hiking and spend time with our friends.

There is still much evidence of the 2010-2011 earthquakes in Christchurch.  In the Dallington neighborhood where the Bells live, there are now many empty lots with shrubs but no houses.  However, there is also much progress.  Two significant additions since our last visit are the reStart mall, a downtown shopping mall constructed from shipping containers, and the Cardboard Cathedral, a metal and cardboard structure built as a short-term replacement to Christchurch’s iconic stone cathedral that sustained major damage in the earthquakes and is now apparently being rebuilt.  There’s also a moving memorial of 185 white chairs on a downtown lot – one for each person killed by the earthquakes. 

 

It was very comfortable returning to Christchurch – reconnecting with places as well as people.  We took a trip back to New Brighton beach and enjoyed walking on the pier and along the ocean.  Even visiting our local New World grocery store felt like home, and finding a lamington cake at the nearby bakery was a special treat for Paul.  While we had missed the peak of spring blooms, there was still a variety of flowers and tree blooms brightening this Garden City of New Zealand.   Christchurch feels like a second home to us.