Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Back Home from ChristChurch

I had a lovely week with my sister visiting the Garden City, in time for the Ellerslie Flower Show. Every year we try and catch up, usually near my birthday in March. We live approx. 8 hours apart, so its lovely to have this time together.
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It was awful to see the amount of damage still to be cleared in Christchurch. Some of the streets in places were like driving on a rollercoaster. Up and down, but still drivable. It bought tears to my eyes to see the wonderful old Cathedral in ruins.

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Every one of these chairs represents one person who died in the February 2011 earthquake. They are placed in a vacant lot near the CTV bldg that came down, killing 115 people. 

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(Click on the above photos to enlarge)

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We spent 5 days touring around and two days shopping, and managed to see so much, including the ChristChurch Botanic Gardens. Some of the trees are well over 100 years old, and have the most beautiful trunks.

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The Herbaceous Border at the Botanic Gardens was developed in the 1920’s and is said to be the longest HB in the Southern Hemisphere


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To make this post a bit quilty I took all these pieces of fabrics with me to make up into hexies.


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In other words I hardly did anything. I didn’t cut up a single strip!
These hexies were already cut, and I just glued them!
Ah well, I had a great time, and that’s all that matters.
Thanks for dropping by
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5 comments:

Cath said...

So glad you had a good time in NZ Sue. My husband has wanted to visit Christchurch (to discover his roots) for awhile now but since the earthquake I have been scared off. Its a shame about the cathedral but the botanical gardens still look lovely.
Cath @ Bits 'n Bobs

Merilyn said...

It IS so sad to see Chch is such a state! I did my nurses' training in Chch in the early '70s, and always loved the place, I have such beautiful memories of the city, and even went up inside the spire of the Cathedral back then! In those days Colombo Street was a thoroughfare, you could drive straight through, before they closed it off to create Cathedral Square.
It would most certainly be hearbreaking to see so much destruction, the photos for me are bad enough......
Such beautiful gardens, and the weather looks to be gorgeous too, glad you had such a nice time despite what has happened there!!!!

Pip said...

I haven't been to Christchurch for years, but I remember the cathedral well, it was a good meeting place, such a shame. The gardens are beautiful, can't help thinking of all the weeding though :)

FlourishingPalms said...

Thank you for sharing your pictures of Christchurch now. We have such fond memories of being there, and traveling around New Zealand. Christchurch is such a pretty city, but it does hurt to know how it's changed and of the people who lost their lives. The gardens are lovely yet. I'm glad you could share this time with your sister.

Karen - Quilts...etc. said...

I have always been interested in NZ and loved seeing the photos. Such horrible damage to such a great looking cathedral. I'm glad you had a good visit with your sister.