Life in Christchurch continues to be shaky. We've had several substantial tremors in the last week, but they are such a part of life in Christchurch now that they hardly warrant mention. I'm certainly not being blase about the tremors - the faint booming sound followed by a shaking house and swaying lights can make us a bit tense. Still, life goes on.
This week they announced which areas of the city are truly munted and will not be repaired. The government has offered to buy all the homes in these red-zoned areas, as services (electricity, water, and sewer) will not be returned to these homes. Mostly these are areas along the Avon River and the estuary. The high silt content of these areas ensures that they will not remain stable in the event of future earthquakes. Many people are upset, to be sure, but I get the sense that many people who live in those most-damaged areas are relieved to have a buy-out package waiting.
In the last month or so, we've been trying to get to some of the beaches in the Canterbury region that we had not yet visited. A couple of weekends ago we went to Pines Beach, which is just north of the city. I've included some pictures of our trip to the beach. The one picture of the ocean shows the view north (showing the Kaikoura Peninsula in the distance), while the photo of the beach is looking south to the city and Banks Peninsula. The other two pictures are of A and R, of course!
E haere ra!
Beautiful photos! The grey and purple blue beach has a really cool colour palette... That is so sad and interesting about red-zoned areas... when we are so familiar with the opposite in the sense of perpetual building and expanding.
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