Day 36 - Quake City

​It was another delightfully slow morning this morning. I caught up with Daisy on WhatsApp (just a bit of shop talk!) and pottered a bit before having brunch at what is now my favourite cafe just down the road. The banana bread is delicious.

Conveniently, the museum ‘Quake City’ is just opposite said cafe, and this was my planned activity for today. The museum is all about the Canterbury earthquakes of 2010 and 2011. The September 2010 quake was more powerful, but it was the February 2011 one that led to loss of life, and 70-80% of all buildings in Christchurch being destroyed.


It was fascinating to learn more about earthquakes and also things like liquefaction and the new technologies being used now to rebuild the city. It was also nice that the museum had exhibits about the history of the city that was lost and the restoration efforts.


Obviously the most touching parts were the stories of those affected. In particular, there was a video of interviews from 2011 shown in the middle of the museum, but then at the end there was another video with the same people interviewed 10 years later. I spent quite a long time at the museum, and am so pleased that I went as it is obviously impossible to understand this city without understanding what happened in its recent history. 

After the museum, I headed on a bit of a walk to find a particular geocache that I have been wanting to find (as it is a mystery cache that I had to complete a series of AdLabs to get the coordinates). This exercise took me far longer than expected, and I was very grateful that the cache owner responded to a message from me when I was about to give up, as he was able to direct me to the right place. I did like that the final location was just near Peterborough Street. I also enjoyed some of the nearby street art!



Happy with my success, I headed back to my apartment to sort a few bits for my onward travel tomorrow! I then went out for a final evening in NZ dinner at a lovely Italian restaurant by the river, and had a catch up with Tony and Jane on WhatsApp too.

I have loved New Zealand, and am sure will reflect more on my time in the country in due course. Tomorrow’s edition of the blog will be coming to you from Australia though! 

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