I’m now in Christchurch on the South Island. Christchurch is the largest city in the South. On Feb 22, 2011, Christchurch was hit by a devastating earthquake that nearly totally destroyed the central business district. The city is still trying to dig itself out of the destruction. All over the venter of the city, cranes tower into the sky as they rebuild multiple buildings simultaneously. It was somehow fitting that I had only been int he city a few hours when there was a Tsunami warning from a large quake in Chile. You might think that Chile is a long way off, completely on the other side of the Pacific, but a Tsunami doesn’t care about distance. Fortunately, the forecast was for a very small wave, around 1 ft. It did arrive, but it was hardly noticeable. I spent the morning walking around town, but besides the huge reconstruction underway, there’s not too much else to see. One interesting innovation is a little “Mall” setup downtown called Re:START that is made entirely of shipping containers. It provides a way for small businesses to keep running while the rebuilding is still underway.
Christchurch is a city of Cranes and they busily rebuild the earthquake destruction. They look to be building everything in a robust fashion to survive future quakes.
This is the Re:START Mall. All the shops are build from shipping containers. It’s all quite stylish.
Even the patio covers in this little cafe are made from shipping containers with their sides removed and the tops glassed.
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