Day 6

This morning Mike had some errands to run which would take him into Christchurch and he convinced Heather and me to go along with him.  Here are some pictures of what is left of much of downtown Christchurch. 

I didn't take these pictures because no one is allowed in these areas yet but you can drive by outside the cordoned area and look down these streets. These pictures were taken by a professional photographer and they are exactly what it looks like downtown.  There is devastation everywhere and it is heartbreaking.  Outside of the downtown area are many abandoned houses and lots of neighborhoods that sustained alot of damage.  We saw one house that, because of liquefaction, had sunk down all the way up to the bottom of the first floor window sills!  


Then we went to Mike's parents' house.  They are giving Heather several fruit trees to add to her orchard!  Their house has been badly damaged but they are still able to live in it and they are now waiting to see if the insurance company will agree to pay for all the repairs or label it a write-off and just give them the money for it and then bulldoze the house.  Then t will be up to Mike's parents if they want to rebuild or move away.  All in all a very depressing morning.


After lunch Mike started planting the orchard with Heather's help.  I'll post a picture of the orchard when he gets all the trees planted. I spent a good part of the afternoon scraping and sanding on the second floor of the house in my ongoing quest to get it ready for paint!! Tonight we watched The New Zealand All Blacks defeat France in one of the matches for the Rugby World Cup being played here in NZ.  Final score was 37-17 but the game was really not that close!


Off to bed - another busy day tomorrow!