CBD = City Bloody Depressing

Had to take my car into town to get it fixed, so I took the opportunity to walk around while I waited for the repairs. I was supposed to pick the car up at 2.00, but come 2.00 the mechanic had only just started work on it! so I'll pick it up today. I had to go home on the bus, pretty much a whole day wasted.
  Some pics from the walk round:

 

Michael Parekowhai's sculpture of a bull standing on a grand piano is packed up for storage; the sculpture was the focus of a fund-raising campaign to buy the bull for the city. It was the first positive thing that we saw after the earthquakes. The top picture show the bull already crated up on the back of a lorry and the piano remains. What was weird was how quiet the work/workers were; if this was Italy there would be a lot of shouting from the workers and good advice from observers, it would have been much more entertaining.

 

 Our poor old Cathedral, or what's left of it. Prolonged squabbles about what to do with it have left it like this. Pigeons now roost in the rafters, and rats make nests in the kneelers and prayer books. Disgraceful.

 

This is what a large part of the CBD looks like now. A wasteland, huge desertlike spaces with ruins dotted throughout.

 

This is the new 'cardboard' cathedral, designed by Shigeru Ban as a temporary home for the Anglicans, and a venue for events.

 

 

These are figures from the rose window (now destroyed) copied onto polycarbonate panels.

 

Can't decide whether I like it or not. The clutter of stuff around the altar detracts from the austerity of the structure.

 

 

This is the site of St Lukes Anglican church, an old stone building dating from the 1870s. Now completely  demolished, a labyrinth has been built from bricks on the site. Churches were particularly hard-hit in the quakes, being both old and poorly maintained.

 

Very handsome and healthy borage growing on a vacant section - used to be someone's garden. 

 

This is McLean's Mansion, built in the 18 somethings for wealthy man Allan McLean. The owners want to demolish it, although it is structurally sound. I think the problem is that they are woefully underinsured so cannot afford to do the cosmetic work and earthquake strengthening required. I have hopes that it will be preserved (local music groups would like to use it as an education and performance centre, as our old one was destroyed) but I'll bet one morning we'll wake up and it will be gone.

The Spanish/Deco/Hollywood fantasy that is New Regent Street. Most of the shops have been restored. The man in the hat is the Wizard of Christchurch, local identity and eccentric.