Social meets Print media - the Daily Pic gets on page 3!

In this funny thing we call life, we get recognised for different things in different ways.  Those that do well get a Gong, those that do evil get a sentence…..and those that Tweet pics of the Cathedral every morning at 7am get……an article on page 3 of the Press!

Jeff got interviewed 3 or so days ago at the cordon about life in the cordon.  To be honest, it aint much of a story compared with all the horror out there and so I was wondering when, or even if it would appear.

But there it was on page 3 of today’s The Press Newspaper (5 Mar. 11).  For those outside Chch, this is the daily paper that I use in my morning pic tweets.

The slant of the story was a little different – concentrating on the photo rather than life in the cordon but I’m cool with that.  Many thanks to Victoria from The Press Newsroom.

So, why do I do this? Read my blog about how and why I started taking a daily photo and tweeting it.  And you can see the series of photos here on facebook. On the morning of 22 Feb. it was raining and so I just dashed out, took 2 quick shots and dashed back in again, not knowing it would be the last time for a long time before the Cathedral Spire would return to bring joy to my morning.

22. feb pic

23 feb pic

The pic I took and tweeted at 7am on 23 Feb reveals a totally different Christchurch.  For the first time, the BNZ building can be seen in the picture.  I’ve taken lots of pics since the quake but today I had a newspaper and took a shot as usual, just a few hours later than usual!    I look forward to recording the changing face from my gate at 859 Colombo St. as we put our wonderful city back together!  Especially looking forward to seeing the Cathedral Spire slowly block out the view of the BNZ building little by little!

Todays pic

Christchurch Earthquake Day 9

What is happening to your booking?

So, just what are we doing? Some of our guests with bookings may just be asking that.

Yes, we have been asking people to limit their visits to Christchurch to the bare minimum, and we have been basing this on what we have seen in the inner city and an announcement how Tim Hunter from Christchurch and Canterbury Tourism feels about the situation.

http://www.dotwnews.com/news/Christchurchanogoarea.aspx

Christchurch just is not the place to be at the moment, we need time to tidy up the mountains of rubble, time to plan and time to rebuild.  Especialy the tidy up stage will be intense.  It is estimated that 60% of the buildings in the CBD will have to be demolished and the funny thing is that while the majority are older buildings, there are a number newer structures that will not survive.  Wer need time to tidy all this up and get the city back together.

It is for these reasons that we are asking guests to keep out of Christchurch as much as possible.    

 While Christchurch is seriously damaged, the airport is open and the beautiful South Island is waiting for visitors to visit!  The best way to support Christchurch is by visiting the South Island.

Visitors should drive straight out of Christchurch after arriving to towns such as Akaroa, Hanmer, Methven, Ashburton, Rangiora etc. at the start of their holiday. 

When leaving, plan your last nights stay in the same towns so you can easily drive to the airport.

On a lighter note, today was Redandblack day and people all over the world wore Red and Black to show solidarity with Canterbury.  Jeff also took a photo on Colombo St. in the morning which was broadcast on TV1 as a part of their coverage of the day!

We also got into the excitement in the middle of the street, avoiding the few cars there were and after a few pics on Colombo St. we were ready to promote the dayto anyone inside the cordon by adding a dash of red to the motel sign! 

The great news to finish off the day was that the Crusaders won!

On a positive note, it was annouonced on the news tonite that the cordons are to be relaxed from Sunday – Great!!  But they could not say how they are to be relaxed.  We are hoping that we will be “out” of the cordon by Sunday evening.

Freedom! Freedom!!  We have been living and operting the motel behind the cordon and we give many thanks to all those who have helpde us in out endeavors.  We hope that tomorrow will bring better news.

Christchurch Earthquake Day 8

Wow! Have to say sorry to everyone!  Did not get to blog yesterday. Decide to have an early night so headed off to bed at 12 for a good nights sleep…NOT! Bloody aftershocks….8 during the night! I think I woke up for 5 of them….but in aggregate 7 hours sleep…the most since 22 Feb.

It’s been a full on 2 days with the motel being pretty much full, and lots of cancellations and booking enquiries.  The reality has become clear and there is far fewer accommodation options available in Christchurch post quake and we are adjusting to this.

But back to the disaster.

Life inside the cordon continues in its restricted way.  Life outside the cordon would definitely be easier!  I was able to walk up to Peterborough St to get a few pics.  Glad I did because it is not so easy to walk up there without being stopped by the police now.  Looking at what has been done, the destruction of a special part of Christchurch is almost complete.

Tuesday was 1 week since our lives irreversibly changed.  My god what a week, I don’t think I can remember a week with more in it!  We stood on Colombo St. to remember those who were no longer with us, we stood to think of the disaster that was visited on us….we stood.  From where we stood we could see the Cathedral Spire Stump, from where we stood it was only about 400 metres to the PGC building where so many had perished.  We stood in silence for 2 minutes but the tradesman across the road did not have his radio on and was noisy for the first minute!

Afterwards Naomi and I hugged each other and cried for everyone and everything.  One of our friends who we went to rugby games at AMI with was in the CTV building and no doubt there will be more people we know.  We also cried for what was not anymore.  We will go on and maybe it will be better but still we cried for what was not anymore.  We cried together and that was important.

And then we moved on, knowing that while we had paused, we will still have reason to pause again in the future. There are so many people and so much to remember!

This day, in the morning, we were visited by the USAR team.  They never visited us after the September 4 quake and so when a uniformed person with a sledgehammer turned up in the office saying *we are clearing the place,* we were of course surprised.  It took a few seconds to realise what was happening, at first we thought we were being evacuated for some reason! 

This was a part of the door to door central city search to confirm no-one was left anywhere.  They sprayed the driveway to show we had been checked!  And asked me quite a few questions!

In the afternoon we had some good earthquake entertainment with a bloody big digger racing up Salisbury St! 

Wednesday was also the day of the wind which stirred up the dust making a mask a necessity.  It got everywhere and was horrible. Thursday was just soo much better!!

This day I was also interviewed by The Press on life inside the cordon, went shopping for new microwaves and watched as the plans for the clean up continued!

More tomorrow…..

Living inside the cordon

The Cordon with Kiwi & Singapore Army personal, a road closed sign and a few cones.

The area inside the 4 avenues is cordoned off and the barriers are manned by Police and Army personal, including our gracious friends from Australia and Singapore!

Living life on the edge, if I go over this line without ID, I can't get back!

The only way to get in is by having proof of residence and it is very strict.  With personal being continually rotated, we find ourselves showing our ID most trips through the cordon.  It can get stressful because while there are rules they are open to interpretation.  The other day I was told that if I took my car outside the cordon, I would have to leave it outside and walk back in, but the next day I was allowed out and in with the car.  There was also an interesting episode when some guests were told their access may be limited and we had to work hard to get their access guaranteed.  I am not complaining, I know its tough and this hasn’t exactly happened before and there’s a lot of stress.  This is just the reality of life behind the barrier.  On the plus side, it’s real quiet!  We do however, have to abide by the curfew rules which are 6pm to 6am and while I take pics from the gate at night if there is work going on at the Cathedral etc. I don’t go any further.  It’s very eerily quiet inside the cordon at night.

Inside the cordon there is another......cordon.

Today, a busy day dealing with multiple cancellations and bookings, time got the better of me and I mistakenly headed off down to Peterborough St. arounf 6.40pm……here’s what happened as I related it on Twitter.

So close but yet so far, so beautiful but so ruined

Busy busy day.....no time to go out.....so have just been out in the cordon......#eqnz

Work continues on the FB building - taken from inside the cordon

But Fark! I got stopped by three Boyz in Blue! They ask *what do you do?* I look at watch and think....oh shit....curfew....#eqnz

So I very clearly explained who I was and what I was doing........#pleasedontarrestme #eqnz

They ask who the other person was and I said it was my son......#eqnz

They said...*it's curfew time you know*...so I put on my surprised expression, looked at my watch and said.....Oh! shit its this time! #eqnz

They let me go ..... and I cycled home ...... #nottakentojail #eqnz

Today's lesson - don't go biking in cordoned area after curfew time without a cycle helmut on! End of report from inside the cordon #eqnz

Was gonna ask for a pic with the iphone but the steely stare and cold voices told me *No! not a good idea!* #eqnz

Oh! When they asked me what I was doing I said *just getting some #eqnz pics for Twitter & Facebook* #GoSocialMedia

If I was arrested, judge would ask *what WERE you doing?* & I would say *Promoting the reconstruction thru social media, your honour* #eqnz

Lots of noise inside the cordon tonite from down past Peterborough St. 

Only the new light will tell.

As a footnote, lucky it wasn’t the policeman (use nice word) that I had a discussion with at the cordon yesterday….of I may well have ended up in jail!!  And that is outside the cordon!

Christchurch Earthquake Day6

Its been another interesting day, the day before we meet the 1 week anniversary since the ground shook.  We will take time to hold hands together and think of those who ended their time with us a week ago.

We started the day in fog but it soon cleared to show activity at the Colombo Peterborough St. intersection and the Australian Police Officer said the block may be cleared today.  It was not to be as it turned out.  The whole block looks really munted, and we hope that a few of the buildings are able to stay with us.

A rubbish truck drove up the street today.  They have a really distinctive whirr and everyone immediately know what it was.  The driver said they’d take anything so we and the neighbours all wheeled out as many full bins as we could.  We even refilled and dumped again! Great to see the council is getting things done and not sticking to rules too much.  Good on them!

The news is slowly coming out about which buildings we will be loosing from the CBD and the surprising thing is that some of the most modern buildings are also on the list.  It appears that the liquefaction do not discriminate and likes new buildings as much as old!

Today we have been talking by email with a few of our guests about room availability.  We have been asking people to not stay with us because we are behind the cordon, there is nothing to do here, we are concentrating on the rescue process, and we figured that most people should be able to arrive and drive straight out of Christchurch.  Similarly, we assumed that people would be able to drive directly to the airport instead of staying in Christchurch when leaving the South Island.  But today we had the case of a guest who would be joining and leaving a tour in Christchurch who needed 1 night at both the start and end of the tour.  We realise that cancelling at this stage would be difficult in some cases and so will be reviewing our requests inline with this. More info tomorrow.

As we close in on 1 week, I have taken particular notice of the 2 cars parked outside the motel that have not moved for 6 days.  One of these cars has a learner tag, probably indicating a young driver.  We hope the only reason they are here is because they can't get thru the cordon to pick them up.

Christchurch Earthquake Day5

When it gets to this stage – day 5 - rather extreme exhaustion starts to creep in.  Usually I would have given up long ago but the adrenalin, the need to get things done and the feeling that if we do slow down we will start to really think about what has happened.  

Hot water! Yes! We are now, in terms of basic services, back to what we were before the ground shook.  I had recieved an indication from our gas supplier that we would maybe get the gas back on Monday and so it was a pleasant surprise to see a repairman in the office and a truck full of gas tanks in the driveway!  I kissed the truck and I like it! It was truly wonderful to see!  We had been using piped gas but the pipes are useless now and so we needed to change to bottled gas.  The changeover was done in just over an hour!  We now have hot water and all guests, and ourselves can have a shower!

But then our phone system went south on us – meaning it broke.  We were unable to receive any emails!  A call to the supplier resulted in a visit by the boss.  He took an hour to hook up a temporary system.  He said the insides had been damaged by the shaking! Another quake victim.

We have also spent a long time sorting out emails and sending emails to many people.

Naomi and I are constantly overwhelmed by the wonderful messages of support we receive throughout the day from so many people – many of them ex guests.  We like to be able to reply to everyone of them although some of the replies are very short (sorry!)

We’d like to take this chance to ask people who still have not cancelled their visit to Christchurch in the near future to hurry up and do so.  Christchurch is just not ready to accommodate tourists at this stage.  After the September quake, we tried to get everyone to still come to Christchurch but this time we want everyone to stay away.  That is the best way to help us at the moment.  But please do not leave NZ, please still come and see the other wonderful areas in the South Island!  Eventually we will be ready to have you all to stay again, but this is just not the time.  Here’s an article I found about it, http://www.dotwnews.com/news/Christchurchanogoarea.aspx

On the not good side of news, what we call the Munster’s house, the beautiful building across the road is on strange angles, has a red sticker on it and has probably reached the end of its life.  But it will live on forever in the photos that so many visitors to Christchurch have taken all over the world!

This after noon I headed out to the supermarket – but limited market was a better word.  Not much on the shelves!  On the way there I passed the cordon, manned by  NZ Police, NZ Army and Australia Police!  Yesterday there was a Singapore Army Soldier on cordon duty as well.  It is truly humbling to see these people from overseas helping us out.  Although it is a bit strange to see the different uniforms!  By the way, the Australian police have been invested with the same powers as NZ police – now that’s how to get things done!

And that about wraps up day 5 – a landmark day for us as the motel returns to full service level!

This photo was taken about 11.30pm on 27 Feb.  The white glow in the middle is the stump of the Cathedral Spire, lit up as the rescue continues.

As for me, I’m going to have a shower before going to bed!

Christhcurhc Earthquake Day 4 - The recovery Continues

If you have been following our homepage you will notice that I omitted 1 point from yesterday’s blog – we have water!  The first drips appeared Thursday night only to dry up again Friday morning.  By Friday afternoon ½ the rooms had water and by late last night all had at least a trickle.  An important step.

We now need the gas so we can have hot water but this may take some time due to our proximity to the centre of town.  The plan is to have hot water flowing on Monday.

Hopefully it’ll work!

I also omitted mentioning yesterday that we were visited by the Fire Department.  They were going door to door making sure everyone was ok.  On top of that, this morning we were visited by the City Council for our building inspection.  2 council employees and 2 structural engineers spent about 10 minutes here checking the building for safety.  We were awarded (??) a green “safe to use” certificate.  Stuck to the window with colour coordinated red tape, we are prevented by law from removing it.  So there it will stay.  So the good news is that our building is safe!

We were talking about it tonight but these 2 visits show how well organised the disaster response is.  By dividing the city into manageable areas, the council is able to quickly work out just what is happening.

In a matter of days, our motel has morphed from a popular tourist base close to Christchurch's heart to an emergency/recovery support centre.  This has changed the flow of what we have been doing completely.

Many people have been contacting us asking what they should be doing with their booking.  It’s a really tough call because the situation is so fluid.  It may change, it may not.  All we can recommend is that you wait a few days and see what is happening before you make your decision.  Being inside the cordon we are not the best place to be as you options will be severely limited

I’d like to write more but exhaustion has got me nodding off as I write this.  Must be away and get some sleep…more tomorrow.