First reaction to arrival in Christchurch? Cold. 12 degrees C. I need socks and trainers! Guess that might not be too cold as compared with UK. It's a bit of a culture shock after the heat and humidity of Sydney yesterday at 33 degrees C though.
Second impression as we drove from the airport to our accommodation - what a lot of devastation is left four and a half years on from the earthquake of September 2010, which caused a large amount of damage to the buildings in New Zealand's second largest city. The subsequent earthquake, in February 2011 killed one hundred and eighty five people and caused yet more damage. Reconstruction plans were estimated to be $40 billion although we don't know how much of that has been spent.
Suffice it to say that there are lots of signs of rebuilding, along with empty plots, cranes and other machinery. Many of the bare outside walls have murals on them.
Our apartment block has a building site adjacent to it.
In a Huf
Dave writes:
Once again, no great plaudits for Europcar (qv) as we picked up our hire car at Christchurch airport.
The guys might have mentioned (a) the ignition did not work until you put the clutch in (b) the rear doors and boot would not unlock until you hit the key device TWICE (c) reverse gear is extremely difficult to get and (d) might have produced satnav which we believed was part of the deal.
On reflection much of it could have been avoided if they had taken the trouble to walk five minutes with us over to the vehicle.
Now where have I read that before.
Btw, the car registration number is HUF 720. That's me.
______
How the mighty have fallen
My Priority Pass gives access to over 700 airport lounges worldwide - but. as it happens, not Sydney.
I only found out after being shunned at two of them as an online check confirmed that in 0Z I am only good for Melbourne and Cairns.
Grrr.
Worse still I had just changed all my OZ money for NZ and only had enough, back with the masses, for a single croissant until Jean kindly rescued me.
All such gripes fade though as we drove through Christchurch and the parts still coping with the earthquakes from 2010/11.
Dave writes:
Once again, no great plaudits for Europcar (qv) as we picked up our hire car at Christchurch airport.
The guys might have mentioned (a) the ignition did not work until you put the clutch in (b) the rear doors and boot would not unlock until you hit the key device TWICE (c) reverse gear is extremely difficult to get and (d) might have produced satnav which we believed was part of the deal.
On reflection much of it could have been avoided if they had taken the trouble to walk five minutes with us over to the vehicle.
Now where have I read that before.
Btw, the car registration number is HUF 720. That's me.
______
How the mighty have fallen
My Priority Pass gives access to over 700 airport lounges worldwide - but. as it happens, not Sydney.
I only found out after being shunned at two of them as an online check confirmed that in 0Z I am only good for Melbourne and Cairns.
Grrr.
Worse still I had just changed all my OZ money for NZ and only had enough, back with the masses, for a single croissant until Jean kindly rescued me.
All such gripes fade though as we drove through Christchurch and the parts still coping with the earthquakes from 2010/11.
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