Had a really good sleep and it feels good to be settled in one place for a few days without having to pack up.....took my time over breakfast and then went to meet the lady I have had been corresponding with at a local tennis club.
It looks like a really nice club with 8 courts I signed up for a short term membership and was given a key for the main gate and invited to join a group on Wednesday evening...it will be really good to get back on the courts again!!!
Megan my contact was then kind enough to let me follow her to a local sports shop where the club gets a discount and I bought a new bat...it is exactly the same as my old one
I really did not want to travel with it after I leave NZ and the owner of the store told me he would buy it back when I leave.....
I then came home and packed up a lunch and got on the mountain bike that comes with the apartment and there were wonderful bike paths all the way in to the down town......my ride downtown!!
You do not see many of these!!
I parked the bike by the musuem where I will go back as the have the Da Vinci collection on display and walked down by the river
Walking through down town was a very moving experience seeing the destruction...the old buildings in ruins and to see all the new construction going on!!!
This is an area that was devastated and they put up a new outdoor mall all with shipping containers!!!
I then walked to the square where the Cathedral sits such a somber sight there is a fight between the church and the historical society about whether it should be torn down or repaired!!!
There is Quake museum which I will go into next week and learn all the history of the events .....
I enjoyed the bike nice to be not driving...
Came home and sat outside and read my book....
Robyn and Peter the home owners invited me for dinner which was lovely and then Peter offered to drive me around some of the outlying areas and show me the effects of that eventful day.
I was totally amazed whole subdivisions just nothing there completely flat..houses , schools and factories.....he then drove me to the huge stadium that was 4 years old and used for the Commonwealth Games .....it looked Ok to me and I asked if they held concerts as well as games there..I did not understand that it was condemned...the turf field completely sank and it has remained empty and unused since but a company from England has been commissioned to try to raise it and re build.........I never knew the extent of the quakes and the damage.....
Just a quiet evening at home and all is well!
Yashi Kochi!!!
1 comment:
When we were there in 2012 we spoke to people whose homes had survived the quake but had supposedly suffered damage to the foundations that that had to be condemned. It was a terrible situation for these folks as their insurance would not pay since the house was considered "intact" but the municipality had nonetheless rendered their homes uninhabitable.
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