We stayed in a Kiwi Park site on the outskirts of the city and drove in on Sunday morning. We parked on the site of a demolished building. We had stopped briefly to look at the 'Cardboard Cathedral' that was erected to replace the one which was severely damaged in the earthquake.
It has been four years since the quake, and a lot of damage was still evident. There were some new buildings going up, but there are far more empty spaces where buildings were. A lot of the buildings that are still standing have been irreparably damaged and are waiting to come down. The Cathedral looked very sad and open to the elements.
The locals remain determined to make things better and there are many 'transitional projects' underway. One such is the Re: Start shopping mall which is housed in movable shipping containers. We wandered through these and stopped for a drink and some sushi. We also wandered through the fantastic botanical gardens and listened to a band playing jazz. Boarding the vintage electric tram, one of several, we did the city centre circuit, getting on and off at many points to see the sites. We even found a Steampunk shop and spent a while looking at the goodies there.
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