Christchurch

I mentioned in my last but one post that we kept getting asked the question “Would you want to live in New Zealand?”

“Kept getting asked” may be a slight exaggeration. We’ve been asked it by almost every Kiwi we’ve had longer than a ten minute conversation with, but it’s not like every single person we met threw the question at us without so much as a hello to ease us in. 

It stood out to us for a couple of reasons. One obviously being that we had to politely explain that no, actually, we don’t want to live in your country (but please let us stay in your house!).

The second reason is that it inspired a conversation that lasted our whole time here: Would we want to live in New Zealand, and if we did, where?

We posed the question to each other after almost every place we visited. We used it as a scale of how much we liked a place, what our opinion of that place was, and whether or not we thought we would visit it on our way back to Auckland. 

It was also a really fun way of figuring out what kind of places we’ll want to live in in the future. For example, we found that we both really like cities: I like the big, busy, full of culture, cafes, and picture perfect buildings; while Tom likes the same things just on a slightly smaller scale. Neither of us like sub-divided land, or places with absolutely nothing in them at all (we’re looking at you, Invercargill). 

So far the only two places we liked enough to say “I would live here if we moved here” were Gisborne and Wellington, although Wellington lost huge points for not having a stationary shop in the centre, and Gisborne lost points for literally being stranded on the edge of the country with only 2 road in and out. 

We had been in Christchurch just under 24 hours when I declared “I think this is the first place I could properly see myself living in in New Zealand.”

“What? Really? Here?” Tom answered back incredulously, giving a pointed look at the crumbled building we happened to be walking by at the time. 

I’ll admit, it’s not the nicest place we’ve visited so far. I mean I wrote this post in Queenstown, quite possibly one of the prettiest towns I’ve ever seen in my life. Christchurch can’t really hold a candle to that place. 

It’s also not like it has the most shops or cafes or museums, or any of the things I like doing in cities when I visit them. Wellington beats Christchurch for that. 

I don’t quite know how to explain it. When we arrived in Christchurch, I had the most miserable walk to a hostel I’ve experienced yet. My bags felt too heavy, we were entering our 15th hour of travelling that day, and we didn’t seem to be getting any closer to the YHA. In any other place, all of that would have immediately set me up for disliking it. 

And yet. 

I didn’t.

*

When we went out to buy food the following morning, we found ourselves walking through something that declared itself the “RE:Start Mall”. I’d read that this was something to see while you were in Christchurch, so I was intrigued as to what it was (I couldn’t understand why a mall would be a must see?). 

The RE:Start Mall is a collection of shops all operated out of renovated shipping containers. Each shipping container is painted a bright colour and the shops range from clothing stores to trinket shops to a post shop. There was even a bank in one. 

It’s set out in a kind of rough ‘L’ shape, with little lanes coming off the sides. There were tables and chairs dotted everywhere, ready to seat people ordering from the many coffee or food shops dotted here and there. 

It was always busy when we walked through. There were always people sat talking in groups, chatting to the shop keepers, or just wandering like us, taking everything in. 

Almost all of the shops were local. Each one had something unique to offer, while all still retaining something similar, something that let you know where it was all from. 

Each brightly coloured container, each shop filled with presents and people, each one seemed to be holding up a flag and saying “We’re here! We’re still here New Zealand! Come see us, come see what we’re doing now!”

*

“We spent a couple of days in Christchurch but there isn’t really anything to do there, it’s still really run down. We didn’t enjoy it that much. Apparently it’s going to take 10 years to rebuild everything after the earthquake.” 

“Christchurch is quite run down mate, I wouldn’t recommend spending too long there.” 

*

On our last day in Christchurch, we took the Gondola up to the top of Mount Pleasant. We walked up to the viewing platform of the visitor’s centre and were greeted with one of the best views we had had in New Zealand so far. 

*

As you’re walking through the streets, you’re greeted with a strange mix of old and new. 

Buildings that are still bearing the scars of the earthquake hold themselves up mere steps away from sleek modern buildings that are younger than the scars next to them. 

Perhaps the saddest building we saw was the cathedral. The walls had fallen away, exposing rooms that shouldn’t be seen from the street. Painted glass window panes stood with missing glass and seemed strange, standing unsupported amidst all that rubble. 

A small picture in front of the building showed you what it used to look like. 

We weren’t even sure it was the same building at first, there was so little left to distinguish it. 

*

Colour is bursting from the city. Whether from painted ship containers, or painted walls. 

I loved stumbling on each new piece of street art. I especially loved it when those explosions of colour were decorating walls or buildings that hadn’t been renovated yet. The new paint giving life to the battered bricks. 

It reminded me of the way flowers pop up in expected places. How beautiful they seem when they bloom in places of destruction, or war, or disaster. 

That’s what Christchurch felt like to me. 

Like a flower struggling through the dirt and grime to reach the sunlight, Christchurch is slowly rebuilding itself after the events of 2012. 

You can feel that and see that as you walk through the city. You can see the colours and the new buildings and the scaffolding and the noise and you can see how passionate the people who live there are about their city. 

It was a city that felt full of possibilities. They have the chance to rebuild themselves, make themselves better than before, but they’re not letting the old Christchurch be forgotten. 

*

2015 brought with it the end of my undergraduate degree, the end of a relationship, the end of friendships, and a plane ticket to the other side of the world. 

2016 promises a return ticket home, reunions with everyone I love, starting a Masters programme, and beginning to build a life with Tom. 

I think I loved Christchurch so much because I needed to see that starting afresh is possible. I needed to be somewhere that promised anything was possible, but was showing you the fulfilment of that promise as well. I loved it so much that the flew place I came to after leaving Nelson was this city. I wanted one last look before I leave for good. 

I’m only sad that I won’t see where these next few years take them.