From The Dark End of The Street, To The Bright Side of The Road... To The Dark End of The Street

Well, this certainly turned out to be a day of polar opposites. Began the morning in Hokitika under dark clouds with intermittent rain. Got a late start so, instead of exploring the town a little more, I headed directly north. After a stop in Greymouth for petrol and a flat white coffee, I followed Highway 73 east toward the Southern Alps and Arthur's Pass.

The clouds were low and overcast for the first hour or so but as I proceeded up into the mountains they gradually broke up and cleared almost entirely. As usual I had to stop every three seconds to take a photograph and gasp at some natural wonder. (And this was before I even got to the good part.)

Once I snaked my way up to almost 3000' elevation and cleared the summit (and Deaths Corner), I descended thru Arthur's Pass and subsequently into the Waimakariri Valley. That's where I stopped for lunch beside the river of the same name.

After a fine repast of ham sandwich and PB&J, I noticed a gravel road on the other side of the highway that went off into the distance and wondered what might lie the end of it. It was a bit of a rough go but my sensible mid-size sedan acquitted itself well enough.

The road went on for quite a long time but I was rewarded at the end with a grand vista of a rocky riverbed receding into the distance where it met a range of snowcapped peaks. I had to laugh out loud because, once again, my curiosity paid off. Not everyone would have spotted that road and decided to go down it.

Which, in a way, is one aspect to the story of my life. I've never found it easy to sit still and I've always been a bit of a wanderer. When I was in grade school I used to ride my bicycle 5 or 6 towns away from home just to see what was out there. I even rode to Passaic once.

When I was in 8th and 9th grade, I used to take the bus into New York City without telling my parents and wander around Greenwich Village or SoHo, back when they weren't quite as "safe" as they are now. As a teenager, I used to hop freight trains with a friend of mine and then jump off after a town or two but once I ended up in Hoboken. Luckily, I didn't wind up somewhere in the Midwest.

I remember making a vow to myself, like George Bailey, that I was going to shake the dust of that little suburban New Jersey town off my shoes and see the world!  Of course, I haven't seen the entire world but I've seen big chunks of America and bits of some other nations. The point really is that I've always been curious as to "what's down that road?" And today that stood me in good stead.

However, after a while, the abundance of scenery on the Great Alpine Highway, as it's known, was starting to wear on me. I'd come around a curve, spy yet another awesome sight and have to pull over. I was only halfway along on the drive and it was already mid-afternoon.

I needed to get to Christchurch by 5 PM or so in order to get a decent motel room and still have time to visit the downtown. It got to the point where I started yelling out, "Stop it! Stop it! Leave me alone! Let me just drive!"

Eventually the landscape conceded to my wishes, flattened out and became mostly pasture and farm land until Christchurch. Whew! I did indeed roll into my downtown motel by 6 PM.

Now, since I plan to be on the road again by late morning tomorrow, I thought I'd take part of the early evening to stroll around the city centre. Since Christchurch is one of the largest cities on the island, I figured I would go see what kind of an urban setting the Kiwis had come up with.

I was shocked with what I found.

Now, I must say that I was aware of the earthquake here in 2010. I knew that, with repeated aftershocks the loss of life ultimately totaled almost 200 people. I had also recently read that rebuilding was coming along very slow. But this… This was something I had not anticipated.

I first came upon the damage to the Christchurch Cathedral, which I had been told would have to be razed completely. I then happened upon an area that was completely fenced off with a couple of high-rise buildings   that were unsafe and unoccupied.
As I proceeded to move farther south all I could see in any direction were damaged or partially destroyed buildings. There were some open businesses dotting the landscape but they were very few indeed. Mostly there were empty lots where it was clear buildings had been torn down and other lots where new construction had begun but a vast number of structures were still fenced off and were clearly uninhabitable.

It was mind-boggling. It put me in mind of 50's science-fiction movies where a nuclear bomb has gone off and all is a desolate wasteland. Blocks and blocks where once had been shops were now just piles of rubble. Entire 20 story buildings are boarded up and abandoned. And all of this was within a 10 block radius from the center of the city.

I had heard that people fled to the suburbs or other parts of the island and I now know why. I still can't get over how many empty, wreckage-strewn blocks I came upon. And this is almost 3 years after the fact. Wow.

There are certainly sections just off the downtown that are not damaged and I passed a few areas where people were having a grand old time dining out in a number of upscale restaurants. So, there's life in the old gal yet, but let's just say that my mood was a bit dampened by the time I returned from my walkabout.

Anyway, I guess I don't really need to spend a whole lot more time in Christchurch. I know there are neighborhoods outside the city centre that are very quaint and undamaged but I still do have a schedule to keep, of sorts.

My plan now is to work my way north along the coast, stopping in Kaikoura and ultimately ending my day in Nelson, from where I will make day trips to some of the national parks and beaches along the northern end of the island.
That's the general idea anyway.

OK. All for now.
Here are photos from both portions of my day.