Cathedral 2013 (ruined) 

Cathedral 2008 (intact)

Today we took a bus ride around the downtown part of Christchurch. We got to see the full extent of the 2010 and 2011 earthquakes. The downtown of Christchurch looks like a ghost town. The “red zone” is blocked off by chain fences and military guards make sure people don’t get in without permission, because the downtown is still a very dangerous place to be. We took a tour bus into the “red zone”. Most buildings did not collapse, instead they took lots of damage in certain places which made them unusable. The year 2013 will become the year of reconstruction in Christchurch. So far they have been clearing out all of of destroyed buildings. In the “clearing” stage they have cleared out around 80% of all structurally unsafe buildings. While taking the tour through the downtown I felt almost as if I was in Universal Studios. In the cafes, plates were still on the very dusty tables. Some still had food on them. The windows had markings spray painted on them stating a search and rescue squad would have been there. My dad and I were very surprised to see the Christ College, a boys private high school, had not taken ant damage. The college is a very medieval looking building that is made up of stone bricks. Later we learned that in the 1990’s the city earthquake-proofed the building due to smaller quakes. The college was built in 1856. One of the worst of buildings was the Cathedral. The famous Christchurch Cathedral is in a court case right now on whether to restore the building or to completely knock it over and restart.