My friend Bob said to me recently, we are both struggling to write, lets write about why we like where we are living.
Grand idea Bob.
So I wrote this some time ago and have been slack in publishing.
Sorry Bob 😳
Christchurch…..A Destination…..9 August 2021
Yesterday it snowed. Like at our house.
I arrived in the city in 2015 and that first year it snowed.
Right there in the city.
Hasn’t really snowed in town since.
That year I remember it well.
I looked down from the second story of my workplace and thought what an interesting ride home it was going to be.
Because yes, I rode to work that day.
A 12km ride each way.
I rode to work every day.
I lived here for 3 years before finally buying a car.
Which sits in the driveway, while I cycle past, to still, ride everywhere in Chch.
As usual I digress.
This photo is taken looking down our street.
Right at the end, you can see the Southern Alps.
The Southern snow capped Alps.
It’s a beautiful sunny day, and it’s in the middle of winter.
Yep, 9 August, and here we are, the middle of winter and sunny.
Quite often in Chch it rains during the night and is sunny during the day.
As a Ballarat ‘not quite born and bred but lived there for 50 years kinda girl’, I really appreciate the winter sun.
Traditionally (sorry the Rat), historically, Ballarat spends a long winter in the colour grey.
Having said that, I can’t deny there can be winter sun, like these photos taken in May this year when I was lucky enough to get home and see my family.
The thing is, here, when we have a few grey days, Cantabrians are not a happy lot.
And rightly so, they really are not used to grey.
Grey is not a favourite of mine.
For anything.
It’s my least favourite colour.
Yeah sure, we have grey carpet, but that was new and here when we bought the house.
During a Christchurch winter, whilst it’s a nocturnal freezing, the days are often blessed with sun.
The colour yellow.
A colour that captures our attention more than any other colour.
Even the nocturnal freezing is hidden by the colour yellow.
Sometimes on my 7am ride to yoga it’s a balmy 2 degrees.
By the time I come out of the lesson, at 8.30, it’s jumped up a notch or two.
Sometimes as high as 5.
But that yellow sun is out.
And that makes all the difference.
Coming from Ballarat, the weather talk should be enough for anyone to understand why I love Chch.
I know Bob will want more.
Why else do I like Chch?
Interesting question Bob.
Frankly, I think that Christchurch is heading down the right track to be one of the greatest cities in the world.
I know right? Big call.
I haven’t travelled as extensively as MoD, our scratch out maps attest to that.
I’ve been to a few major cities across Europe and right across the States, favourite being NYC.
In fact in the last ten years I’ve traveled more than I hoped or dreamed.
So I have a little bit of a notion.
Chch, due to the devastating earthquakes of 2011, has had a chance to reinvent the wheel.
Reinvent itself.
I remember being in Dubai and being astounded by the different shapes and types of buildings.
Here in Chch, it’s the same.
Chch is creating architectural art.
The way they are creating their buildings.
The way they are setting out the town.
The fact there are over 1200 parks and gardens here to enjoy and be part of.
The very accessible and encouraged community gardens.
The fact that cycling is encouraged and embraced as part of the long term environmental plan for the city.
The cycleways here are unbelievably good. Often the roads have actual cycle paths, completely protected from the traffic.
There are a large number of pedestrian and cycle shared pathways.
I never thought, not in a million years, that I would be a cyclist.
And yet here I am.
Given a choice as you now know, I don’t take the car.
I ride.
When I was working in the city, I got to ride through Hagley Park every day.
Hagley Park, (akin to Central Park, obviously not as big), is 167 hectares of ‘wide open spaces and mature woodland’ right there in the heart of the city.
A salute to the forethought of the 1850’s ‘Powers That Be’.
With, among other things, a 9 hole golf course, the Hagley Cricket Oval, netball and tennis courts, lakes for model sailing, concert areas, the Botanic Gardens, and of course the Avon River which runs right through it.
There are big expanses of lawn which at this time of year are starting to spurt daffodils.
Harper Avenue is renowned for it’s spring Apple Blossom trees.
Stunning.
Chicken soup for the soul.
Hagley is 5km south east of our house.
The international airport is 5km north west.
I can actually ride to the airport.
A 7 minute drive means that an international flight can take up 1.5 hours of the day pre-flying. Unlike Ballarat to Tullamarine, which can be 4 or so hours.
I am eternally grateful for that.
Chch is a major city, which has everything you need.
Post earthquake the city was awash with the most beautiful murals on the left-over buildings, many of these murals still remain and more have been added.
Aside from everything, the murals attempt to redirect the eye away from the fact there are still a number of buildings which are vacant and severely e.q. damaged.
Particularly on the eastern side.
You can get a sense of the devastation this amazing city was subject too.
I’ve said before and I will say it again, the resilience of the people here absolutely stuns me.
Another reason I have so much admiration for this town.
Within the city, the Council are slowly but surely creating beautiful community spaces with what were once blocks of high rises, now empty sections.
Creating connecting parks and walkways within the city which are simply stunning.
The Earthquake Memorial on the Avon river is sobering.
And beautiful.
The Terrace on the Avon shines with it’s restaurants, shops and Riverside Market, reminding me very much of Southbank in Melbourne.
There is a huge section of land dedicated to the Margaret Mahey Playground.
Supposedly for children but come nightfall…..
Let me tell you that the emergency department here may have seen a few accidents from alcohol induced adults enjoying the equipment a little too much.
Of course the pièce de résistance for me, is the original Les Mills Gym studio.
I’m in fitness heaven.
Closer to our house, it’s a 2.5km walk to a major shopping mall.
We are lucky to live in a truly beautiful neighbourhood.
Our street is apparently noted with an award for being the nicest ‘long street’ in Chch.
Boy was that luck. We bought at exactly the right time, when the market was low.
Whilst in lockdown we found at least 8 beautiful gardens and parks within our 5km lockdown zone.
We are an hour away from the snow fields.
20 minutes from the sea.
I really must start taking advantage of that closeness this summer and next snow season.
The mountain bike tracks around here are pretty awesome.
So I am told.
MoD is the man for that – I only take Bruiser (my mountain bike) on flat surfaces if I can help it.
We can drive from the east coast to the west coast in 3 hours.
Go deep south in 8 hours.
Of course no one seems to obey traffic rules here.
Driving anywhere can be akin to taking your life into your hands.
Speeding and looking at your mobile phone while driving seem to be the big ones.
Not enough Police presence.
And low fines.
Recently MoD got a speeding fine.
He was 10km over the limit.
$30.
That did not hurt.
Not one little bit.
I remember going through a traffic light in Melbourne CBD, happy to go with the flow.
Clocked at 5km over.
$340.
That hurt.
A lot.
Oh well…..
We can travel north of the South Island in 5 hours.
All in all, a very accessible island.
The North Island, which I admit I haven’t seen much of, is essentially a one hour flight.
So there you go Bob.
Why I like living in Christchurch.
Oh no, have I said too much.
I haven’t said enough…….
Hmmmmmm
Of course, there are some negatives.
Some big ones.
When a lot of your family and squad are in another country and borders are closed it can get lonely and feel isolating.
Like many others in my situation, it’s been tough.
I always felt it was ok to live in another country, away from 2/3 of my kids, when I was only 3.5 hours from Melbourne.
Covid made that a joke.
So that’s the negative.
But one thing Covid has taught us is that we can still zoom, we can still have relationships, we can still have cocktail hours.
We just need to remember not to talk over each other when the squad gets together for Friday night zoom cocktails.
Not always easy.
But I’m working on it.
MaureenBetty 