Donna in a dress?

At 18 weeks they're the only clothes that fit, apart from the cycling shorts she's wearing underneath!

November 2011

Central Christchurch, nine months on.  Piles of rubble and empty lots where some of the 1500 buildings to be demolished have already gone, and eerily quiet on a Sunday with the cranes and diggers mostly silent, and the area still closed to the public, with a constant danger of falling masonry, particualrly with regular aftershocks still happening. The latest count

is over 7500. We took a bus tour through the 'red zone'. We weren't allowed off the bus, which stopped just three times - outside the sites of the PGC, and CTV buidings where the biggest number of casualties were, and by the Anglican Cathedral. It was like a game trying to guess which buildings were where. To cheer ourselves up afterwards, we went to the new 'Container

Mall' for a coffee. This 'temporary' shopping area has been built out of shipping containers on cleared land either side of Cashel Mall, right on the edge of the remaining red zone. Judging by the standard of finish, landscaping etc, this temporary mall looks set to stay for a while.

September 2011

The Otago Peninsula near Dunedin, during our visit for the England v Georgia rugby world cup game. The game should have been played in Christchurch along with several others, but was moved, a short five hours drive away due to a certain seismic event. I also went down there for the England v Argentina game the week before, with Paul who was over from Milton Keynes for the whole tournament.

  

July 2011

Lake Pegasus after the first snowfall - the first I'd seen in about five years. The second, in August, was the worst for 30 years, but I happened to be in England at the time for a brief visit.

It's Christchurch but not as we know it

 The remains of the Roman Catholic Cathedral.

 Looking north on Columbo Street - the main road through the middle of the city, on Easter Saturday. Two months since the 6.3 magnitude aftershock. This is looking into the police cordon which still covers maybe a square km of the city centre. When the quake hit, Martin was driving through Auckland with friends from England, Donna was having lunch on 5th floor of her new office in Central Christchurch - it was to be her second full day! The first thing she saw when she got out on the street was the ruined Anglican cathedral. The car was stuck in the city for three weeks. After an enforced break of about three weeks, she's been working from home.

The old Civic Centre buildings.

February/March 2011

The latest earthquake on 22nd February unexpectedly gave us chance to get away again, and happened to coincide with Dave & Chris visiting from MIlton Keynes.

 Overlooking Doubtful Sound, south-west South Island.

 Fox Glacier with Chris & Dave.

Pegasus Bay Winery - just up the road from home, guess who's driving!

New Year 2010/11

After our Christmas guests left, we went away for a week to Nelson and the Marlborough Sounds. This ison the Nydia track.