Christchurch- 4 days before earthquake

We had special visit to Christchurch unaware that 4 days later this beautiful city would experience a horrific earthquake. The heart of this city is Cathedral Square and the Avon river. We were lucky enough to see this magnificent Cathedral  4 days before it was destroyed by an earthquake. We had a wonderful guide and driver who took us on a tour of the city , then to a family home to have tea and Pavlova, along with a lesson on how to make this delicious desert.

The Heart of Christchurch- Catheral square.

Tour of the art center and area around it.

View of central area of art center

Home visit -cooking lesson

Wonderful tea, sweets and company

Saying goodbye to new friends

Building being refurbished from September quake- note steeple on scaffold waiting to be lifted back onto building....

We had such a great day in this gorgeous city! Here is the E-mail regarding the earthquake I received from our lovely guide Fay:

Subject: Christchurch New Zealand Greetings from shaky City
Hi Kathy, hope you receive this message, just to let you know that we survived the earthquake but alas our City is not what you saw a few weeks ago. Keith our driver on the day lost his brother so very sad. The City looks like a war zone and so much loss of life. We are still enduring big aftershocks which are just as terrifying. I was driving at the time bottom of the hill and my car did a 360 degree spin and jumped all over the road before narrowly missing a power pole and concrete wall. I was screaming like I never knew I could but was thankful I survived. Our roads are undrivable in parts so bumpy and broken it will take 15 years to rebuild at least and 30 billion dollars to rebuild our City. So glad you saw it before this happened.
I am going to contact the couple whose home we visited for morning tea. Mona Vale is badly damaged and may have to be demolished also the Arts Centre which we walked through.
Love to hear from you, hope you are well. Kind regards Fay

just received another e-mail form Fay telling me about the The family we visited. They lost their Home.

“Hi Kathy spoke to Alison and Gavin last night the people who had the beautiful garden. Sadly they haved lost their beautiful home to the earthquake it twisted off its foundations and has been red stickered for demolishing.  The Army and police have allowed them into what is left of their street to get the vegetables and flowers from the garden but is is all just so sad for them.  They are now renting a house on the other side of town. So many people displaced and so many frayed nerves and aftershocks.  Some people are only now getting their vehicles back that were trapped in car parking buildings or in the streets when the quake struck.
The whole of the city will have to be rebuilt.  All the Arts centre that we briefly looked through is now rubble or being taken down because it is so damaged.
Kind regards Fay”