Arthur's Pass and Christchurch

We left Kaikoura in sunshine and had a beautiful five hour drive along the coast and then inland towards the mountains. As we approached Arthur's Pass we could see the cloud and rain ahead and were glad that we had phoned the youth hostel in advance to book a room! By the time we arrived, there was also a howling gale.

Some of you reading this blog may wonder how Ian & I can possibly be considered 'youths', but nowadays, we're probably only slightly above the average age for youth hostellers and all the ones we've stopped in over here have been excellent.

We had a short walk to see an impressive 120m waterfall called the Devil's Punchbowl before returning to cook dinner. The wind and rain continued through the night, shaking the windows of the hostel. The next morning the wind had dropped but it was still raining so we decided to cut our losses and head for Christchurch and civilisation (Ian had also seen a leaflet about the RNZAF museum, which had a DH Mosquito flight simulator).

As we headed down the pass, the weather very quickly improved, so a quick change of plan saw us heading up the Bealey Spur to its first summit at about 1500m. The sun came out and we thought our luck was in, but as we made the final push for the summit, the heavens opened. Never mind, we made it to the top and the mountains around us were certainly impressive.

Some of the mountains viewed from our walk up the Bealey Spur

Maggie heading up the track with our summit in the distance

We returned to the car and headed on to Christchurch, but as we got nearer a storm seemed to be brewing and we thought a motel or a hostel would be a good plan. It was too late for many places to answer the phone, so we made for a 'Kiwi' holiday park, knowing that we could always camp if we had to – we had to! Since the major earthquake just over a year ago, Christchurch has lost around half of it's beds for visitors and accommodation is hard to find.

We struggled to get the tent up in the pouring rain and strong winds, but finally did it shortly before dark. This was my lowest point of the holiday so far. At least in a tent we would be pretty safe if another earthquake struck.

In the morning, the sun was shining and Ian headed off to the aircraft museum. I had a cleaning blitz on all the walking gear, and even the car, although you couldn't tell afterwards. The museum turned out to be OK but the flight simulator turned out to be nothing more than a PC game hooked up to military aircraft cockpit. Ian was bitterly disappointed, partly with himself for having been so naïve.

In the afternoon we took a bus into the city centre. The devastating earthquake occurred just over a year ago but there is still an awful lot to do. In the cordoned-off 'red zone' they are still pulling down the tall buildings damaged in the quake. Some of these are visibly leaning but the condition (or fate) of others is not obvious. Rows of big-name shops and businesses stand empty. The cathedral lies within the red zone but there are other fine masonry buildings outside the zone that have suffered badly. These have been shored up, not only to prevent them collapsing spontaneously but also to allow them to ride out the aftershocks that are still occurring.

Earthquake damage in Christchurch

On a more positive note, great efforts seem to have been made to keep the city centre alive. A 'mall' of brightly-coloured portable buildings has been set up on what, one assumes, was the site of demolished buildings. Flowers and shrubs have been planted in tubs. Banks, shops and cafes are all there and seemingly well used. It's very different but by no means unattractive.

The container mall

As we were dozing off later that evening another small tremor shook our campsite. Nothing unusual apparently but the longer it goes on, the more it plays on the nerves of both the inhabitants of Christchurch and their insurers.