Where I am underwhelmed by Christchurch

Because somewhere had to be our least favorite place on the trip

Jan. 11, 2024

I feel bad critiquing a place devastated by a 2011 earthquake, but as a tourist, the city has a suburban feel and few attractions. It may have been more interesting before. Buildings from all eras were destroyed–possibly much of the character as well. I don’t miss cathedrals (which always seem to get rebuilt) but the funky little stores and apartment buildings. Our guide on the train yesterday said many people moved out of the city after the quake, and as a result the highway infrastructure to surrounding towns improved. In the past it might have taken 45 minutes to get from ___ to Christchurch, now it takes only 15, so people could live further away and still work in the city.

I read a lot about the quake, curious as to why a quake smaller than the 1989 quake in San Francisco caused so much more damage. It’s complicated.

This probably didn’t fall over in the earthquake, but is a great example of New Zealand politeness.

Everything that follows is me recollecting things I read on the internet so don’t quote me. Christchurch is built on an alluvial plain, aka sediment washed down from mountains. Even a casual internet search will reveal hazards associated with building on this type of land. However, there hadn’t been an earthquake for hundreds of years and there were no known faults.

Here’s the part where things go wrong: developers built on swampland (streams and rivers run through the city) because – eager/greedy developers and cities ignore science under the pressure to expand. This is literally the plot of so many movies and books (and real life). Selling swampland or land in a floodplain or some other place that clearly should not be built upon. It will be fine! Don’t worry!

In September 2010, a 7.1 magnitude earthquake occurred 40km from Christchurch, which caused damage in the city but no one was killed. It did loosen things up though. The epicenter of the 6.3 “aftershock” (I learned that there is debate in the science community about what is considered an aftershock) in February 2011 was only 10km from Christchurch and at a shallow depth and this quake the ruined the city. 185 people were killed and there was extensive damage.

I learned a lot about liquefaction. “Liquefaction is a natural process where earthquake shaking increases the water pressure in the ground causing some soils to behave like a fluid, resulting in temporary loss of soil strength.” We have liquefaction zones here in San Francisco and I thought it meant only that the ground was unstable due to having been a creek in the distant past, or that it was coastal landfill. But liquefaction in a wet area is a whole other thing…really scary. After the September earthquake, people’s homes along the Avon/Otakaro river (the swamp) sank and water seeped in, but damage wasn’t too bad. During the February earthquake, weakened houses were destroyed, streets reverted to rivers, and entire neighborhoods officially declared red zones and all buildings required to be demolished. More than 8000 houses were eventually torn down. Initially, the government would only give settlements to people who had insurance…though many people who owned their homes outright did not have insurance. It took until 2018 for the government to pay uninsured people for the houses it required be torn down, even though some had minimal damage.

In addition to the red zone, there are empty lots all over the city where buildings were torn down but not rebuilt. You almost don’t notice them at first other than it’s odd to have so many parking lots where no parking is needed.

Enough history. I headed to the nearby botanical garden this morning. The day was unusually hot and windy, 20 degrees above normal according to my weather app and anecdotal evidence. A news crew hailed people kayaking on the river and asked them, “What do you think about this weather?” Someone mentioned it’s normally cloudy and windy and never like this.

Either the Avon or Otakaro river…battle between English and Maori happens on every sign

Highlights of the garden included finally finding out the name of the plant that I’d been seeing all over. I thought it was a Joshua tree. No, it’s a cabbage tree. Cordyline austalis. I also saw a very suspicious-looking redwood tree supposedly from California. I’ve never seen one like it. I enjoyed the conservatory which was meant to be a hot house but was actually cooler inside today.

I headed towards the CBD (central business district) to find a store that was supposed to have New Zealand arts and crafts. I was getting a bit panicky about souvenirs. I’ve got zero suitcase space and am struggling to find small unique things to bring home for friends and family. On the way I stumbled upon the Riverside Market. It’s a fun outdoor mall plus indoor food hall that’s very nicely done. I had sushi for lunch. The store I was searching for turned out to be a standard artsy gift store with only about 20% made-in-New-Zealand items. No luck.

Hot and tired and needing to rest my feet while still seeing some sights, I caught bus number 2 to Sumner, a beach town the woman on the train implied was very far from Christchurch, but turned out to be only a few miles away and a quick ride on the bus because we didn’t have to stop often. There was no air conditioning on the bus so I moved to the back on the shady side.

I hate to post “meh” photos, but do want to document the place. Oh! There’s a cabbage tree!

The landscape around Sumner was NorCal-esque. Very dry, steep hills with bare dirt and dry grass, hillside homes with nicer vegetation around them. Not that pretty. On the beach, high surf churned up what might have been pretty-colored water. The light gray sand was covered in driftwood and people. Many people played in the ocean as well, despite the cold water and rough surf. The lifeguards on beach were earning their money, looking vigilantly in every direction and yelling and waving “No swimming” signs to people in the undertow area. 

The wind picked up and sandblasting me and everyone else, but everyone else seemed fine with it. I walked back to the street and waited in the sun for the bus home.

We had dinner at a highly-rated and delicious restaurant, The Goldfinch. The only sad thing was that it was their first night open after summer break and it was only us and one other couple in the whole place, so no fun people-watching or atmosphere.

Back at the hotel we struggled to set up some mood lighting so we could relax and watch TV. Not sure if I mentioned it but the lighting in the room was a nightmare. All on or all off, no dimmers. And all on was like a TV studio–blaring bright. We set up a small desk lamp in the corner and watched strange New Zealand public-access-esque shows in near darkness, happy to take a break from trying to find things to do.