Christchurch

We arrived in town Thursday and had a quick visit to the cardboard cathedral (now called the Transitional Cathedral) before going to check into our hotel. We were lucky because one of the volunteers who works in the church was available to chat with us about some of the features. It's very interesting and makes use of 8 shipping containers around the sides that are used for offices. You can hardly tell they are there. Many of the destroyed stores and cafes in the downtown area are using shipping containers to just keep things going until new buildings are built. These containers have now become tourist attractions. 

The stained glass window here is composed of enlarged versions of some of the shards that fell from the original iconic cathedral in the centre of the city. 

This temporary cathedral was designed by a Japanese architect. Its vaulted roof is made of cardboard tubing, quite strong in itself but reinforced with internal beams. Even the cross at the end is made of cardboard tubing. 

Very near to the cathedral is a memorial to the 185 people who died in the earthquake of Feb. 2011.  It features 185 empty white chairs, one for each person who died. 

It's very moving. Many of those killed were foreign students attending English language school in an office building that totally pancaked when the quake occurred. 

That night we had dinner at the hotel which just reopened its dining room 2 years ago after suffering damage in the earthquake. Apparently the rooms were all ok so the HF groups still were able to stay here, but had to go down the street for meals.

My appy that night was very pretty and particularly nummy: tomato feta cheese caprice. 

Tomorrow we get to really see Christchurch and learn more about the Garden City of New Zealand.