It's the Christmas season and I take it I'm supposed to feel festive and jolly.
I like to think I feel that way most of the time - even living in a city battered by earthquakes and regardless of Christmas. Sure, there are days when the realities get you down - when you're sick of driving your car into huge potholes, or over popped-up manholes; when you're tired of having to travel across town negotiating endless detours, road works, road cones and puddles; and when the dust and crap, the heavy lorries and the metallic clawing of diggers and cranes sends shivers down your spine. But overall, I feel pretty fortunate to have survived 2010 and 2011.
But there are thousands of others in Christchurch who will have a miserable time over Christmas this year. They may have lost family, their houses, their businesses, their futures - or, if they live on the Sumner cliffs, may be about to.
They may be living beside huge road construction zones like this monstrosity on Woodham Road.
A situation that's unlikely to change for many weeks to come.
They may be like this antique dealer, contemplating valuable stock reduced to rubble in the ruins of a city store, unable to get in to retrieve anything, unable to move forward until they've waded through harrowing and frustrating bureaucracy - a process that will drive them to the point of despair in its own right.
Or this Linwood firearms dealer, who has sealed up his shop (having removed the firearms and left a sign to that affect) and has tried to make someone else's day brighter by offering them free bricks from his rubble.
Or like these Bexley homeowners, they may have had to send an urgent message to the North Pole, enlightening Santa to their plight and begging him not to try climbing down their supported but still unstable chimney. (Children all across Christchurch are likely to be frettiing about the loss of their chimneys and how Santa will access their homes for present delivery).
Or worse, perhaps they no longer have a home at all. Perhaps it's lying in a state of ruin like this Bexley home - its front torn asunder and all their possessions broken and exposed to the world; their gardens now abandoned and over-grown.
And there will be many Christchurch people who will not be able to go to Christmas services at their local church. If they were once members of the Avonside Holy Trinity congregation, this is all they'll find on the site of their once beautiful Victorian Gothic church - a pile of broken tiles, some rescued lumps of masonry and this small box of lichen-covered roof slates - all set on one side of a huge, now vacant city lot.
Empty, Quiet.
We know you've probably all had a gutsful of hearing about our earthquakes - the destruction, the loss, the chaos - but this Christmas day, if you don't get the present you were hoping for, or your Christmas dinner turns pear-shaped as old family resentments rise to the surface over the Christmas turkey, think a little of these Christchurch people who have lost an unquantifiable amount and who are having their second Christmas in an earthquake zone. Not me, I'm fine. I'll be baking in the Melbourne sun for Christmmas.
Many people like these won't be having any fun at all.
Cast your thoughts in their direction.
It won't take you a minute.
And we *will* be grateful.
It's a brilliant fine day in Christchurch today.
Seasons Greetings
When I was out walking last weekend, I dropped into the Christchurch Cathedral in the Square to see what was happening. I timed it perfectly for this colourful Christmas shot. One of the choirs was in full voice and the beautiful interior columns were a-glow with festive lighting. I've photographed this and many other churches, numerous times - click on Churches in the label line below for more - and it always surprises me just how different images of the same place can be, dependent upon lighting and circumstances.
The first in this year's Christmas snapshots!
Kaiapoi is a small rural service town just 10-15 minutes’ drive north of Christchurch – depending on how fast you cross the Waimakariri River to get there. When I was a kid growing up in the North Island, all Kaiapoi meant to me was a label inside woollen garments and on blankets. The town was well known for the woollen mill run by the Kaiapoi Woollen Manufacturing Company, which produced a wide range of products that can still be found all over the world. But I digress… I went to Kaiapoi yesterday for the annual Kaiapoi River Carnival, Street Market and Santa Parade – an all-day affair that also included speed boat and rescue demonstrations and dragon boat racing on the Kaiapoi River, which runs right through the heart of the town.
I got there an hour after the start and the whole town was packed. I’d never seen so many people there. In all fairness to Kaiapoi, although it began life as a rural service centre, it is now virtually a satellite town/suburb of Christchurch. It’s a domicile for many who work in the city and the population (2006) sits around 10,200 with a further 1,700 in the surrounding district. That represents a growth rate of 11% over the previous five years and by now, in 2009, I’d say it’s grown even more. Large new subdivisions are sprouting up all around the perimeter.
For all that growth, there is still a very real sense of stepping back in time when you hit Kaiapoi. The buildings are old and wobbly (a few are restored), the shop window displays are definitely archaic and the town’s leading department store, Blackwells, was opened in 1871 and hasn’t changed much since. I went into Blackwells yesterday and smiled at the shambolic array of goods – fishing rods nestled up against stands of women’s hats, scarves and bags for instance. The whole place had an air of the 1950s about it. But none of the locals seemed to mind, so why should I? In many ways, it’s nice to know that rampant slick commercialism hasn’t taken over the entire world….Kaiapoi is still waiting.
As for the Christmas Parade and carnival festivities….well….what can I say? I spent the whole day switching between amusement, surprise, nostalgia and amazement. In short – a great day out. Unlike many of the much more sophisticated city Santa parades, this one had all the hallmarks of community do-it-yourself spirit. The all-day street market set the mood. The main street was closed off and became a busy marketplace complete with a two-man band belting out all the oldies from ‘Achey Breakey Heart’ and ‘Ten Guitars’ to ‘Dancing Queen.’ There were preserve and plant stands, hot-dogs, candy floss, lucky dips, merry-go-rounds, Scottish dancers, clowns, brass bands, stilt-walkers and a million hideous shopping opportunities. The local tavern overlooking the river did a roaring trade; mobile espresso vans faced endless queues and food stalls included unlikely treats like haggis on a stick and black pudding butties; and people gathered on the riverbanks to watch wood choppers and practising rowers – and the odd jet boat and inflatable rescue demonstration.
And then came the Santa parade! It’s years since I went to a Santa parade so maybe I’m a little out of touch but I couldn’t help thinking it would have been hard to come up with a more disparate and unlikely gathering of parade participants than Kaiapoi’s effort yesterday. The truly bizarre collection of included everything from tractors and soliciting politicians to horsemen, Vikings, angels, hotrods, vintage trucks, ponies, a trailer load of Christmas fairies, fire engines, boy scouts, ambulances, school floats and bands on the back of trucks – oh and of course the Scottish bagpipes and knee-kicking dancers. It’s as if every single club and organisation in town decided to have a crack at it. Quite frankly the floats were dreadful in terms of decoration and design but it didn’t seem to matter a bit. Everyone was happy, Santa waved, ladies threw sweets and glitter, the stilt walkers wobbled about and bunches of balloons floated through the air. Totally crazy and much to my surprise, I loved every minute of it.
Marshlands Road, Christchurch. Christmas Eve, 2008. Ajr 
Shelf display, Woodend, Victoria, Australia. Nov. 2007. Ajr 
Melbourne, Australia. Nov. 2008. Ajr 
Pohutukawa, Akaroa, Banks Peninsula. Dec. 2007. Ajr 
Christchurch. Dec. 2008. Ajr 
