On the road to recovery

At 12.51 p.m. on Tuesday 22 February 2011, a magnitude 6.3 earthquake shook the city of Christchurch.  Its epicentre, near the port town of Lyttelton, was less than 10 km southeast of Christchurch's central business district. It caused the collapse of several major buildings including the city’s much loved and photogenic cathedral. 185 people were killed and several thousand were injured.

My family traces many of its roots to the Christchurch and Canterbury region. As a child, I recall spending many enjoyable holidays at my grandmother’s house in central Christchurch (think of a rope swing hanging from a Pear tree).  Therefore it was an emotional experience to watch live television coverage of the quake’s devastation and its aftermath. My aunt’s home was destroyed by the quake and my cousin, a civil engineer, was heavily involved in the city’s slow recovery.

I spent a day touring the city with my Auntie Pam on ANZAC Day, witnessing first hand the extent of the city’s devastation and its rebuilding efforts. Pam was a superb host. Together we visited many of the disaster’s more poignant locations. This included the recently opened memorial park on the banks of the Avon River, the shattered remains of the cathedral and its “temporary” replacement, the quirky “cardboard cathedral”.

The memorial park is a credit to the city.  It’s a wonderful place of reflection.  For me, the memorial’s highlight is a kōhatu pounamu (greenstone) resting on a marble plinth at its entrance. It reflects an established Māori tradition of placing pounamu at important entranceways and thresholds and the ritual of touching the stone connects visitors and locals back to the land and all those who have been there before us.

The greenstone is sprayed at regular interval by a water feature.  This accentuates the stone’s rich green colour as well as symbolises water’s life-giving qualities. No doubt it also discretely assist with public hygiene as almost every visitor, myself included, pauses to reflect and touch the stone.

We then walked the streets of central Christchurch.  I was astonished to see block after block of commercial buildings had been demolished and removed.  I knew this had happened but the reality was rather confronting and brought home the true scale of this disaster. 

However, it was also encouraging to see the first new blocks of buildings open for business.  It’s clear that once Christchurch has been fully rebuilt, the city will enjoy an incredibly modern, vibrant and unusually coherent streetscape.  The temporary cardboard cathedral is a superb example of this regeneration.

Designed by Japanese architect, Shigeru Ban, the officially titled “Transition Cathedral” is genuinely impressive.  Its gently sloping roof rises 21 metres (69 ft) above the altar. Materials used in its construction include 60-centimetre diameter cardboard tubes, timber and steel. The roof is clad in clear, ribbed, plastic poly-carbon sheeting, while eight shipping containers housing side chapels and office form its walls.

Perhaps the most shocking sight of my brief visit was the open parklands that have appeared in several locations along the Avon River’s bank.  These calm, grassy stretches, filled with mature trees, often in orderly orders are in fact the remains of abandoned suburbs.  Several areas of the city experienced dramatic bouts of liquefaction during the quake and its numerous aftershocks. 

As a result, entire suburbs were gazetted as “Red Zones” and deemed permanently unsuitable for rebuilding.  My Aunt’s former home lies within one zone and my grandmother’s house sits literally across the street from a second zone.  I’m sure one of these parks will make a superb golf course some day.

Daintree Magic

Garry’s brother, David, and his family recently moved into their new home in Far North Queensland.  Garry and I took time out over Easter to check out their new digs and enjoy a few days of R&R.  Our itinerary kicked off with a night in Palm Cove staying at the uber-ritzy M Gallery Reef House. We then crossed the Daintree River for a night in a rainforest cabin near Thornton Beach before making our way to David and Katie’s house for two days.

Our first night in Palm Cove was a last-minute addition. We’d originally booked morning flights from Sydney to Cairns on Good Friday. However, Qantas rescheduled the flight which gave us the option to change our ticket at no cost.  We decided to rebook on the last flight departing Thursday evening (a flight that originally added hundreds of dollars to the ticket). 

We also cashed in a complimentary night’s accommodation in an Accor Hotel that’s offered annually by American Express and secured a room at The Reef Hotel. We also cashed in some reward points with Hertz to booked an SUV for four days for just a few dollars. It’s nice to see these loyalty programs actually deliver on the promise of “free stuff”.

Our flight landed shortly after 11pm and we made it to our hotel shortly after midnight.  Sadly Reef Hotel proved to be a bit of dud.  The bed was rock hard and the breakfast we ordered the following morning was dismal, to say the least.  The hotel itself was stunning.  The grounds included a lush tropical garden, a secluded pool and an expansive outdoor deck for dining that looked out over a palm-fringed beach.

Before checking out of the hotel we took a walk along the Palm Cove beachfront promenade.  The streetscape here is immaculately manicured and maintained.  We finished our stroll with a walk out to the end of the Palm Cove wharf.  Plenty of avid young fishermen were enjoying themselves. We witnessed one them catch and release a baby shark.  Apparently, you’re not allowed to keep them unless they’re more than a metre long.  I’m not too sure I’d be keen to handle a shark that big.

The Daintree proved to be as spectacular as ever.  The ferry crossing was at capacity thanks to the holiday weekend.  It took almost half an hour to get across the river.  However, once across the traffic soon dispersed.  Our first stop was the remote Cape Kimberley beachfront.  Here we spent an hour walking a stretch of the beach before heading inland to enjoy views of the Daintree River mouth from the Mount Alexandra lookout.

Our next stop was Thornton Beach where we took another stroll along its empty stretch of sand as far as the mouth of the picturesque Cooper Creek.  The Daintree’s beaches are always wonderfully devoid of people which really leaves you feeling at one with nature.  We then enjoyed a quick picnic lunch before heading north to Cape Tribulation. 

The Cape was crowded as always and it expansive, wave-fringed beach remains as iconic as ever.  However, the rainforest cabin that Garry had booked proved to be a real highlight.  We were delighted to find we’d been allocated a cabin furthest from the lodge’s main facilities.  This meant we enjoyed plenty of wildlife including bush hens, birds and iridescent butterflies.

The restaurant on site provided a huge surprise.  We dined on some world-class dishes on an outdoor deck overlooking a lush tropical stream.  It left the far more expensive The Reef House for dead in terms of quality! As it was the tail end of the wet season, several brief showers peppered our cabin overnight.  There is something truly magical about lying in bed listening to rain cascading through the rainforest outside your door.

The next morning we made our way South again stopping briefly to visit the Daintree Wild Zoo.  This slightly ramshackle affair offered up a few fauna highlights including a family of baby Sugar Possums, massive crocodiles and a pair of remarkably healthy looking Dingos.

David and Katie’s new home was spectacular.  We enjoyed two nights with the family and made full use of their expansive outdoor entertaining space.  Our first full day was spent visiting the weekend markets in Port Douglas and trying out the new coastal walkway around the town’s iconic headland.  Garry and I also discovered the delights of chocolate-dipped frozen bananas at the markets.

Our final day saw us enjoy a leisurely lunch in town before finally making our way back to Cairns in time to catch our flight home again.  Garry and I both agreed it had been a refreshing, much-needed break after an incredibly frantic period for the business.

Flights ahoy!

We've got another series of flights scheduled in the weeks ahead.  This time we're travelling for pleasure rather than business.  First up we're off to Cairns and Far North Queensland for an Easter break.  I'm then heading off to visit family for an extended four-day ANZAC weekend.

We've taken advantage of a complimentary night's vacation with Accor Hotels to book ourselves into a superb venue at Palm Cove before heading into to the Daintree for a luxury bush retreat.  We'll then finish our weekend with a couple of nights at Garry's brother's new house near Mosman.

My New Zealand vacation includes a 24-hour stopover in Christchurch before heading north to see my Mum and catch up on my brother's ambitious building project, aka, his new home. I'm keen to see how Christchurch has changed since the devastating 2011 Earthquake and see first hand how the city is recovering from last month's terrorist attack on two of its inner-city mosques.

These won't be our last leisure outings for the year.  Last week we took advantage of some special offers to secure a week's vacation at the Shangri-la Resort in Fiji in early-September.  We're hoping to repeat the wonderful experience we had in Fiji around the same time last year.  Garry did a superb job of uncovering a hotel deal and flights discounted almost 50%.