A Bit of the Kiwi City Life

You may not have heard of Wanganui, Te Anu or Omaru, but if you've heard of New Zealand at all, you probably have heard of at least one of it's biggest cities: Auckland, Wellington, and Christchurch.

Auckland: population 1,413,700

A waterside hip and trendy city in the north of the north.

Wellington: population 393,600

At the southern end of the north island, this is New Zealand's capital and gateway to the south island. It's also full of A LOT of one way roads.

Christchurch: population 375,200

Christchurch is just a small little city, that used to be known for it's beautiful Cathedral and coastal French suburb. Then 2011 came. The February 22nd earthquake destroyed the city and took 185 lives. It was shocking how almost four years later, the buildings still lay in rubble. Homeowners are still wrestling with insurance companies to get structural damage repaired. The center of the city is a construction zone.

The once iconic Christchurch Cathedral

 Some of the building facades were being held up with stacked shipping containers.

The front of an old building... 

 

The other side of the wall...

But the city maintains their hope.

Building a temporary cardboard cathedral...

And setting up a shopping center of shipping containers...

And bringing a community garden to life

All the while remembering those whose lives were lost...