Our ride to the airport was scheduled for 12:20 PM so we decided to head into town and take the 50 minute tram ride (with narration) through the city center. For the heck of it I called up my Uber app and surprisingly they are active here in New Zealand (later learned that Lyft is not here).  

The Christchurch tram is a classic; the trolley cars date back to the early 1900s. It is run on rails by a driver dressed in period costume and a conductor who controls the ticket collection. Both gentlemen offered informative narratives of what we were seeing as we negotiated the downtown area. We learned we were riding in the Centennial tram, the tram that has hosted dignitaries like Queen Elizabeth. We felt like royalty!

We were shocked at how much devastation was caused by the 6.3 earthquake that stuck the city on February 22, 2011. It was actually one of the aftershock earthquakes that followed the 7.1 earthquake that hit the area in September, 2010, which  surprisingly did much less damage than the 2011 earthquake. 185 people lost their lives and thousands were injured. We were told there has been over 19,000 earthquakes in the area since that time; they average several a day, most of which are not felt by anyone. New Zealand is on the same fault line as the west coast of the USA, something we did not need to hear.

The whole downtown area has had to be rebuilt. Supposedly 2,000 buildings were damaged or destroyed; there are 400 yet to even be addressed. The downtown area was inaccessible for two years.  A lot of progress has been made but much remains to be done. Several different people said it might take another 7-10 years to finish the rebuilding of Christchurch.

The most iconic news we all heard at the time of the quake was that the main cathedral built in 1864 was heavily damaged. It still stands but remains untouched.  There are ongoing discussions about whether it should be repaired or simply torn down. A temporary church was built nearby, called the cardboard cathedral, as it is made of steel and cardboard with a life expectancy of 30-50 years. We walked over to see it. Nearby is a emotional memorial. There are 185 white chairs sitting on a simple plot of green grass, representing those who died.  What makes it especially poignant is that there are many different types of chairs, including several baby chairs.

We returned to the hotel via taxi as it began to rain. Interesting data point- the taxi fare was twice what we had paid for the Uber. Our flight to Napier on the east coast of the north island was about 1.5 hours. Scott and Jessica had arrived from Auckland before us and were waiting for us. Scott had arranged to rent an Airbnb home in town across the street from a lovely beach. The sun was shining and all was good.

We headed out for a late afternoon drive to the famous Hawke’s Bay area wineries where we sat under the shade of an umbrella, overlooking the vineyards (where grapes had already been picked, as it is autumn here), and enjoyed some local wines. The area is noted for Pinot Noir, although they grow many grape varieties and offer a full range of wines. Rose wines are very popular here.  We went back to the waterfront in Napier and found that unless you had a “booking” at the more popular restaurants you were out of luck for the evening. We made a booking for the next night and settle for some good old fashioned Mexican food at a local eatery for this evening.

Our collective discovery of the Napier area with its Art Deco theme begins tomorrow.