Last night we had for the first time what I would call a normal night. Uninterrupted 8 hours sleep. I hope that we have caught up with all the changes in time and that our body clocks are now reset.
Today we had an interesting day walking round Christchurch. Normally I don't go in for walking round cities but with Christchurch it was somehow different.
Here's a signpost showing which way we have to go to get back to London.
In February 2011, Christchurch suffered a devastating earthquake and large parts of the city were destroyed. This has given rise to a large amount of innovative thinking about the regeneration of the city and how to support the businesses that lost their places of trade.
The cathedral tower collapsed and aftershocks destroyed the iconic rose window and cracked the whole cathedral like a plate.
Gradually the collapsed buildings are being removed and poets, artists and designers have been commissioned to explore these open spaces and put them to good use until regeneration occurs.
Near the cathedral they have built a Container Shopping Mall, made out of, what else but, containers!
We even stopped for a midday snack in a container cafe.
After that we went to see the new Transitional Cathedral. This is an extraordinary place designed by a Japanese "emergency architect" with a vision of a cardboard cathedral. Yes, a cardboard cathedral. It is made of cardboard, local wood, and steel, with a polished concrete floor and a strong polycarbonate roof. It's built to 130% of the New Zealand earthquake code.
We then had a cup of tea by the river Avon where people were going out in canoes or on punts.
We were quite happy just to sit and watch.
The city has a hop on, hop off tram service which we had intended to try out.
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