Christchurch: the post-apocalyptic city

Same old story: running out of money after some time on the roads -> need to find a job. This time we got into this situation close to Christchurch - 2nd biggest city in NZ, which was struck by massive earthquakes in 2010 and 2011. This caused that more than 1,000 buildings were destroyed or needed to be taken down after the earthquakes. 3 years after the tragedy, the city still looks very sad and destroyed, but there is massive rebuilding going on in order to bring the city back to life... That means a lot of work. Perfect situation for us to earn some money and give a hand by the rebuilding of Christchurch

Yesterday is history - street-art in the Christchurch city centre reflecting the hope and wishes for better days for this city...

The actual look of Christchurch city centre. It basically is a big construction site

Mother Nature probably thought that earthquakes are not enough for Christchurch (btw. Wikipedia says that there were 4,423 earthquakes of magnitude above 3.0 recorded between September 2010 and September 2012) as the city was flooded after heavy rain last month.

The Christchurch cathedral on the main square. I really like the elements like temporary installations and street-art trying to bring the demolished city centre into life (more of that below)

CHCH street-art

CHCH street-art

Container city - my most favorite part of the city. Shops cafes, banks, etc. in containers - bringing people to the demolished city centre. Very nice idea and execution as well.

Container city

We are currently staying out of the city in a suburb called New Brighton, which is located on the coast of the Pacific Ocean, so I can also get some surf (I went only once though as the waves are usually not good here. And the water is freeezing!). The view on the picture is from the public library where we go for free WIFI :) So I have this ocean view right now as I'm writing this post :)

And we managed to get involved in the rebuild of the city. We got a job on reconstruction of the University of Canterbury. 

The plan is to stay some time here and save some money and wait for the winter to move to the mountains for some skiing!