Day 25 February 26th Christchurch

South Island Robin

North Island Tom Tit

Before we start today's activities, we would like to update the types of birds spotted on our walk of Alborns Track near Reefton.  Whilst I was writing the blog last evening, Christine did some internet research and found that one bird photographed was a South Island Robin and another was a North Island Tom Tit which does live in some forests on the west side of South Island.  

Cathedral

 
We visited Christchurch during our last visit to New Zealand in 2013 and the city was beginning to recover from the huge 2011 earthquake.  In recent weeks there have been further tremors and we wanted to see how the city was coping.
 
We could get far closer to the remains of the Cathedral now and it is still in a very sorry state.  There is now a limited tram system running but this was interrupted again by the recent quake.  The container city is still in existence but not so large and with a few embellishments.  A lot more buildings have been demolished and new ones are appearing.  Water is hosed onto the demolition work to avoid dust clouds.  Work continues around the war memorial arch.  A "cardboard" cathedral has been built as a temporary home to the church whilst decisions are made on the future of the original.  There is also a poignant

"cardboard" cathedral

memorial of 185 chairs of all different types and sizes to remember the 185 different individuals who lost their lives in the 2011 quake. 

"cardboard" Cathedral



185 chairs

 We then had aa quick walk to the botanical gardens before retiring to the cool of the air-conditioned car (the temperature was 30 degrees).  We had spent over 2 hours retracing some of the steps we had taken before but the city still has huge problems and a number of people have moved away because of fears of future tremors.

Pines Beach

We then decided to visit a beach near where we are staying and get some fresh sea air.  We went to the Pines Beach, had a picnic and relaxed for a little time but it was still very warm.  We  went for paddle in the Pacific, enjoyed quite a time on the only East Coast beach we will visit this time. Having been there for 90 minutes, we decided to head back to our B&B.  We sorted ourselves out, had a shower and went for a Chinese meal which is a rare treat for us.