Planet Rugby Forum

Rakaia River, just south of Christchurch.

Neat thread, It's really great seeing all the creative uses of shipping containers. I moved to Dunedin after the quakes to finish my studies but I'm definitely keen to move back soon.

Lincoln in Winter:


Okains Bay in Summer:

This looks familiar. I went through the botanic gardens for photographs when I was one of the groomsmen in a wedding there in 2011. It was raining, but the black sambuca kept us warm and jovial.

I'd forgotten about the snow. Have had 3 big dumps since the quakes. Had my first ever "snow day".

This one in 2011 hid all the damage for a short while.

Here are a few pics that help put the scale of the devastation into perspective:

Google earth before after, there's a full album of pics here: http://imgur.com/a/zlEPc



Colombo St?



'Twinkle Toes' The 200 tonne , 70 meter reach excavator

Great photos of the snow FOG. I didn't realise it snowed in Christchurch. I thought only Dunedin.

Auckman wrote:Great photos of the snow FOG. I didn't realise it snowed in Christchurch. I thought only Dunedin.

You American?

It used to be a fairly rare event, evey couple of years or so you would get a cm or 2 that might hang around for a day or so in the shady spots. But it happen twice in 2011, and again last year. Big dumps too. Biggest I have experience anyway, although I'm told the one in 92 (which I missed) might have been bigger.

I remember it snowing only once when I lived there, but that was a looooooong time ago now.

I've had enough snow to last me a lifetime where I currently reside.

I must say the snow was great fun, and the kids went mad. Although I think I would probably get sick of it if we had it all winter.

SilverGrin wrote:

Auckman wrote:Great photos of the snow FOG. I didn't realise it snowed in Christchurch. I thought only Dunedin.

You American?

I've only ever seen Chch being extremely cold and with icy conditions on tv (eg: 1st Lions test 2005 and bledisloe cup test in 2003 etc). Never seen it with snow though.

It snows in America.

SilverGrin wrote:

Auckman wrote:Great photos of the snow FOG. I didn't realise it snowed in Christchurch. I thought only Dunedin.

You American?

Close enough

weka wrote:
'Twinkle Toes' The 200 tonne , 70 meter reach excavator

There certainly have been some big boys toys in town. Same beast I think.



And before it got damaged.

Some of the damaged buildings were boarded up in a more interesting fashion then normal.

Clarendon hotel 1903



Clarendon Tower with original facade.



Now a vacant lot thanks to the quakes.

Fat Old Git wrote:

There is a similar photo of Durban with the Drakensberg in the far off background with snow on them. Can't seem to find it online. Both impressive photos.

Sometimes it feels like you can reach out and touch them. And at other times they feel like they're at the edge of the world.

Fat Old Git wrote:I must say the snow was great fun, and the kids went mad. Although I think I would probably get sick of it if we had it all winter.

Spoiler: show

I can only see is a text box slapped across the image which reads: "This image is Copyright. Unauthorized usage is Prohibited. Please contact us to purchase a Licence." (in bold red letters)

We once had snow in October in my first year of uni in Christchurch.

Think it's more to do with the vagaries of the Canterbury plains microclimate than the actual temperature. Interaction of the wind, humidity, and the inversion layers off the alps. One reason why they also get frequent hailstorms.

Is Akoroa/Banks Peninsula ok?
If NZ wasn't so far away it would be full! Such a scenic country.

Great thread

I like the keeping one side of the clock frozen, pity they did not go for it.

I have strong Christchurch links and was up there recently. Visited the container mall - it's a piece of genius.



I hope they keep it.

MrBunhead wrote:Is Akoroa/Banks Peninsula ok?

Spoiler: show

If NZ wasn't so far away it would be full! Such a scenic country.

Sure. Akoroa is an easy day trip from the city, and Banks Peninsula is sometimes referred to as Christchurch's playground. Some subburbs are built on it and I think it's all managed by the Christchurch city council now as well.

Mr. White wrote:

Fat Old Git wrote:I must say the snow was great fun, and the kids went mad. Although I think I would probably get sick of it if we had it all winter.

Spoiler: show

I can only see is a text box slapped across the image which reads: "This image is Copyright. Unauthorized usage is Prohibited. Please contact us to purchase a Licence." (in bold red letters)

Yeah sorry, I'm getting that now as well. It looked lovely last night though!

MM, I think the plan witht he restart mall is to move it around as the various sites it's sits on get rebuilt.

These guys have a great and ever changing range of beer. And you can get baskets of deep fried pork crackling as a bar snack. Come with it's own coronary intensive care unit*.







*Ok, I made that bit up, but it would probably be a good idea.

Fat Old Git wrote:

The best bookshop in the world IMHO

They're oprating out of a shipping container in Woolston at the moment. There a pic somewhere further back. I think they are going into the cassels old tannery shopping centre that they're currently developing. Currently have about 6 shops running out of old containers while they are building it.

They've stripped everything back and are rebuilding it to more up to date codes.



Giong to look like this eventually.

I just spent a very interesting hour or so with an official from the Minister of Internal Affairs, who is working on assisting the redevelopment of areas affected by the earthquake and tsunami.

I gave him a copy of the July 2012 Recovery Plan and showed him a bunch of photos from this thread.

He was astounded at 1) the quality of the Plan (accepting that nothing will be perfect and there will always be some complaints) and 2) the vitality of the residents/businesses shown here.

Attempts to create similar temporary shopping malls are being met with intransigence by local and central governments, based on existing regulations and bureaucratic procedures.

Christchurch is doing a bloody good job and don't let anybody tell you otherwise

They have a much bigger problem to deal with than Christchurch obviously, but it all comes to breaking it down into small pieces and being flexible I guess. I saw that Sam Johnston, the guy who set up the student volunteer army in Christchurch went over to Japan to help them set up similar volunteer groups. He's also had a lot of input here about what we could do in future as officials here didn't really have any systems in place to take advantage of volunteer groups.







Here's Sam in Japan.

Victoria square is open again, although it doesn't quite look like this anymore.







Crown Plasa in the background here is gone for example. Now the site of the pallet pavilion

Fog, those pics with shipping containers on top of shops.

Where are they? Cashel Mall?

Yep, down the columbo street end of it.