The media, with it's insatiable appetite for the disaster-du-jour, has moved on, but nine months later, the people of Christchurch are still struggling to put their city and their lives back together. The epicentre of the quake that struck in February was directly under the CBD. To this day, the downtown area is still closed.
The museum, the art gallery, the live theatres, the big chain hotels, town hall, office towers....all closed. The casino, of course, is open.
The areas surrounding the CBD are faring slightly better, but the signs of devastation and desertion are everywhere.
The buildings that fared the worst are the older ones, churches and heritage homes mostly. Those homes that are not a pile of rubble or a vacant lot now are propped up to keep them standing.
It is estimated that upward of twenty-thousand people are moving away from Christchurch because they've lost their homes and their jobs in one fell swoop. Still, there is an optimism on the streets. There are people in the shops and restaurants that survived. The bar down the road from me always seems busy. Cars are coming and going, as are planes and trains. The line I keep hearing is, "It was a beautiful city once. It will be again". They're a determined lot who have all been brought closer together by a common enemy. (And, yes, things still shake a little now and then)
Outside the city, the various eco-tourist sites are gearing up for their season, hopeful that 'they will come'. There are still mountains to be photographed, dolphins to swim with, and "Lord Of The Rings" movie locations to visit. I did my bit to contribute to the local economy by visiting an open-range park to go on something called 'a lion encounter'. What this means is that they put you in a big cage on the back of a pickup truck and drive you into the lion paddock. The lions know that the handlers will be feeding them meat through the cage, so you are immediately swarmed by the glorious beasts who only get fed every other day.
Seeing them stand up and demand attention is unnerving enough, but when they jump up on top, it's easy to feel very small.
How to feel insignificant in one easy lesson...
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