Our Favourite Places

People who live in cities have them. Their favourite places. Might be a favourite shop. Might be a favourite cafe. Might be a favourite venue. Might be a favourite pub. Tonight in Christchurch, many people's favourite pub was demolished.

To be fair anyone who saw The Carlton following the 22 February earthquake would have thought it was only a matter of time before it was demolished. There was a gaping hole on the east side wall. There were also braces holding up the south side wall. The future didn't look rosy for The Carlton. However, this was where New Zealand's first tap beer was poured. It had occupied the same spot for over 105 years, which by New Zealand standards, is an exceptionally long time. It also introduced that much beloved pub feature, the beer garden to New Zealand. The first drive through bottle store was also at The Carlton.

To anyone who has lived in Christchurch, they would know The Carlton. It stood on the corner of Bealey Ave and Papanui Road like a sentinel. It has always looked welcoming. It is the pub that has had probably more regulars than any other New Zealand pub. There were groups of old men who had met there every Friday for drinks since their student days. For a while there you could see bands playing there until it was restored back to the original building. Just about anyone who has ever been to a pub in Christchurch, would have spent time in The Carlton. Many people are going to mourn the passing of this part of the city.

Regretfully, the demolition of The Carlton, only re-emphasises the point that this is only one of many favoured places in Christchurch that will face the wrecking ball. All but one of the churches within the four avenues have either been destroyed or badly damaged. To put it in some context, compared to the rest of the churches, the Cathedral got off lightly. There are other buildings around Christchurch that haven't survived such as the ANZ building on the corner of High Street and Lichfield street which was completely destroyed during the earthquake. Buildings further down High Street have had significant damage and it seems unlikely they will survive. Much of Manchester Street and Colombo Street have been demolished already. Many people's favourite restaurants were in these areas.

In the end, it's all brick and mortar. It can be rebuilt. What can't be rebuilt are the lives that have been lost or shattered by the earthquake. But as people start looking for signs of normality, the news that some of those favourite places have moved to new premises, brings an elation beyond what could normally be expected. In the last week, I have seen Scorpio Books, the best bookshop in the city, getting ready to re-open down Riccarton Road - just down the road from my place. The Children's Bookshop is re-opening down Blenheim Road at Blenheim Square and it's looking increasingly likely that Alice in Videoland will be re-opening soon. And while it doesn't sound like much, the survival of those favourite places in a city where everything is anything but normal, is just the tonic to spur the population on.

Alarms, Sirens and Choppers at Dawn

In the last few days, Radio New Zealand released audio of a Christchurch reporter Bridget Mills, conducting an interview with someone in Libya. She all of a sudden exclaims "Big earthquake", with "Shit" thrown in a few times. Almost amazingly, she had the presence of mind to come back to the phone to apologise for the abrupt end to the interview. We listened to this at work and then to some of the initial reports from the Radio New Zealand website. Listening to those initial reports on the ground brought a lot of it back for me.

The initial thing for me straight after the earthquake was the chorus of alarms. It seemed that every building in the city's alarm was activated. It was briefly eclipsed by the rumble of the severe aftershock about 15 minutes after the main quake and the screams of people standing around, not sure what to do next. Many of those reports had those alarms going in the background.

As people left the central city, there were more sounds to remind us all that all was not well. There were more sirens than normal and more helicopters. Later on in the afternoon while walking the dog, I saw a helicopter flying very low over the Riccarton Mall. Almost as if it was doing a spot check from the air, looking for anything with obvious damage. Early the next morning a new sound that we all started to get used to - Iroquois helicopters flying low over the city. Iroquois have a very distinctive sound compared to other helicopters so it wasn't hard to tell when one was around. In fact Christchurch residents could be forgiven for mistaking Christchurch as the scene of a Vietnam War movie, that was how often they were flying around.

Sounds trigger memories and for many people, they are going to be transported back to that day every time they hear a building alarm.

The Role of Sport for a Disaster Zone

One of the most inspiring stories from last year was the Superbowl victory for the New Orleans Saints. Unless you were under a rock for the last few years, practically everyone on the planet within earshot of a radio would have been aware of the devastation wrought on New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina. There was a quote from Drew Brees, the New Orleans quarterback. "We just believed in ourselves and we knew that we had an entire city and maybe an entire country behind us," said Brees, the game's MVP. "What can I say? I tried to imagine what this moment would be like for a long time, and it's better than expected." Try the entire world behind you Drew. Not only were the Saints the underdogs, but many people around the world wanted something special for residents of New Orleans.

Remember the Rugby World Cup in 1995. The All Blacks ruled supreme for the initial parts of the tournament but came unstuck in the final against the hosts. Now it could be argued that food poisoning had its role, but that would be insulting to the host nation, who played like it wasn't just a rugby game, but a symbol of the new South Africa. A nation prepared to embrace all of its citizens. In truth, though it hurt as a New Zealander, it was far more important for South Africa as a nation to win and to show the world, Francois Pienaar holding aloft the trophy with a jubilant Nelson Mandela applauding in the background. In New Zealand, it would have just been an empty cup, to quote Doc Hudson.

So exactly five weeks on from the Christchurch earthquake, Canterbury people have something to look at and cheer for. Although they haven't played in Christchurch yet, or will for the remainder of the season, the Crusaders are putting a big smile on our faces. Not only are they winning, they are winning in style. There is even talk of them being the greatest Super Rugby side ever. They have just played the Sharks in London and have been exciting not only the home fans, but the expat population and even the Northern Hemisphere media.

Add to that the Black Caps bundling out the Cricket World Cup favourites unexpectedly and now through to the semi finals where they play Sri Lanka tonight, then you can have many things to smile about. Especially as they have been written off already by Cricinfo. They have already done better than expected and anything more they do will be awesome.

So how does having a winning team help people in a disaster zone? It's not going to help people build homes or save businesses. It's not going to help rebuild infrastructure or even more poignantly, bring back loved ones. But it will provide a distraction and a happy one at that. And even though many Christchurch people will not see the Crusaders play this year, they will provide a boost to morale, which is extremely low at the moment. So while we grapple with what has become our new normal, we can pause and appreciate that our team is doing its part in our regions recovery. That is inspiring for us all.

Is it Time to Bring Back the Ministry of Works?

Alice in Videoland is one of the most beloved of all central Christchurch businesses. The reasons are pretty clear once you get there. It's a world class collection of movies that is available to all members. It would easily be the best video store in New Zealand if not Australasia. In fact it would be hard to find a better video store anywhere. Last year I embarked on an epic journey of trying to watch a classic movie per week from Alice's. I generally seemed to stick to Kurosawa movies, but even though I fell into the trap of sticking to a genre I liked, there were heaps of Kurosawa movies to choose from week after week.

One of the frustrating things for the movie lovers of Christchurch at the moment, is it looks like all the Alice's staff have to do, is pick up the DVD's off the floor and put them back on the shelf. They could then carry on trading. The problem is many buildings around that area have been destroyed and it is in the cordon zone. However, the building Alice's is in, looks completely unscathed.

Part of the reason may be that Alice's building used to be the High Street Post Office and it was built following the Napier earthquake by the Ministry of Works. The Ministry of Works had a high reputation for not only having world class engineers as staff, but also for over-engineering their projects so they didn't only meet the building codes of the time, but met the standards set by the Ministry of Works. Many projects done by the Ministry of Works have been true engineering wonders.

The Ministry of Works still exists in some form as Works Infrastructure. The MOW was split apart with some becoming Works Infrastructure and the rest going to Opus. So now Works Infrastructure competes on the open market for projects. And there will be compromises that have to be made on the open market.

My own earthquake experience in a Ministry of Works built building has given me food for thought. With so much reconstruction needed, shouldn't we employ the best? And if that is the case, shouldn't we be the best again? No privately run company could possibly carry out the scale of reconstruction needed in Christchurch at the moment so why not have a Ministry of Works who get a similar budget to roading to carry out much of this work. Then in 80 to 100 years when Christchurch next has an earthquake there will be a lot more buildings standing intact around the Alice in Videoland building. And that generation of people will be grateful for the Ministry of Works.

March the 20th of 2011

I suppose I should do this. Because tomorrow I may not be here. I may be crushed under some building. If the predicated massive earthquake in Canterbury happens.

I'll be the first to admit. If I'm lying buried under rubble tomorrow, I'll be slapping my head (if I can reach it) and saying "Shit, shit, shit". And I'll be gutted that Ken Ring was right. I will be kicking myself as well as I wouldn't have changed anything I regularly do - as if anyone in Christchurch is doing what they regularly do at the moment. Because of my stubborn intention to not change anything I might do, I'm not expecting anything out of our current ordinary to change drastically.

However, I'll go out on a limb. I predict we will have an aftershock tomorrow. I also predict that I may put in a case for a new mountain bike given the current topography of Christchurch roads and bike tracks. I also predict that I may finish my book. I'm also predicting that I still won't know where I'm supposed to turn up to work on Monday.

I don't think Ken Ring fully understood the affect his prediction would have had. He just spouted off the date of when it would happen quite knowingly. To be fair to him, that was after the 4 September earthquake, where no lives had been lost. Things have changed drastically since then. Any smugness that we had all survived a massive earthquake has well and truly been smashed. I don't think the 4 September t-shirts will be worn for a while. There certainly will be no market for surviving 22 February t-shirts.

Many people are so terrified they will take any prediction as certainty. Others are leaving town, just to be sure. It is after all, around the time a big aftershock is expected. Prior to 22 February, a big aftershock was expected every four to five weeks. It is nearly four weeks since the 6.3 earthquake. I have neighbours who have taken off to Auckland for the weekend and when I spoke to one of them as we went to school to pick up our children, she had family pressure to leave town for a bit. As we talked about it more, she conceded that she knew the science and didn't really believe in the prediction. But even as a non-believer in the Ken Ring prediction, nobody can condemn anybody who wants to get out of town for the weekend. Just to be sure.

The city's morale is low. Many are terrified. A great many of us in Christchurch have had loss. Christchurch is a small place. You do not have to look through the list of people who died long to see someone you know. Personally I've seen four names - two of those people I knew well enough to talk to. You can be talking within a small group of people and inevitably someone will say something like their wife's cousin was killed in the earthquake.

In a disaster, people generally revert to a state similar to someone in shock. This condition is detailed in Naomi Klein's book "The Shock Doctrine". What her point is in the book is many governments usually push through unpopular reforms at this time, or they take advantage of the lapse in attention of the population to redevelop areas devastated by a disaster to a standard demanded by their campaign contributors. At this stage many Christchurch people are in that shocked state. What may seem absurd, now seems like reason.

What it really comes down to is if anyone chose to leave town this weekend, who would blame them given our mental states at the moment. If I'm under trapped under something tomorrow, I will probably consider them visionary.