Under construction

2020, Feb 25    

Other than delightful weather and a few pretty photos to share, it has been a fairly uneventful week. I should be ok with that. Need to loosen up a bit the self imposed pressure to try to do and see everything. After all I’m a digital nomad with an existing job, not trying to make a living as a travel blogger. Normal to want to experience as much as possible, but it is also ok to just be here.

Typical exploratory leisure walking brought me to the public library, Tūranga, and I love this place! I think it’ll become my office for the next few days. While the wifi speed at the hostel is good, comfort is lacking. The comfort and aesthetics of the library plus it’s central location, hyper clean bathrooms and in-house cafe wins out hands down.

Anyhow, I switched hostels to one a bit further out from city center but offering a private room instead of being on a dorm. A bit more money but provides more privacy, better sleep, and more suitable work space when not going to the library. There is not much of a lounge area here to hang out so less convenient to meet new people, but thats ok. The restaurant next door, which I expected to be generic quality at best, surprised me with pretty amazing ribs. This place will do just fine.

This city still exhibits stark reminders of the earthquake devastation even 9 years going. Countless flattened lots left empty are found all over town in locations you wouldn’t necessarily expect to see them. Go on Google maps and use satellite view. Easy to spot those (altho to be fair there are now new buildings at several sites where maps still show empty lots, one of them being the library for example, and another a new convention center construction). In a few cases there still remains some damaged buildings that are yet to be repaired such as the main cathedral. But most impressive are the large areas of some suburbs that had to be vacated and demolished due to the massive liquefaction that occurred leaving the land too damaged to repair or rebuild homes on; now just grass growing around empty streets. However, you can also find numerous other constructions projects both public and private as you criss cross around other areas. I had read about how this city used to be the second largest, after Auckland, and dropping to third behind Wellington due to the vast exile of people and resources after the quake. They seem to be well on the rebound, however, albeit slowly.

It is quite typical for visitors to New Zealand to traverse the country in camper-vans which allow them to move a bit more freely and have a place to crash when in remote locations. This kind of plan doesn’t quite work for a digital nomad like myself for a few reasons. But what I found interesting is that while you can rent these vans, there is also a pretty busy market for buying/selling them since so many people make similar plans. Makes total sense when you think about it, specially if you plan for a long lasting trip. And why wouldn’t you? This country is gorgeous with lots of places to visit.

Did I mention I am really enjoying the much lesser human density here in Christchurch? While still clearly an urban ambience, there is a palpable calmness and it does not feel like all is up on top of you. Being almost completely flat, it is quite easy to just walk anywhere. Yet I still get some use of the vast availability of e-scooters in most central areas if I need to cut on some transport time, and also just for fun.

Randomly crossed path with a casino in the middle of town. I hadn’t realized there was one here. I made a quick visit after dinner and lost a little money for a change in entertainment flavor. Lots of newbies like me in there so I didn’t feel too typically out of place since I do not frequent casinos much at all.

I think I like kiwiberries more than kiwis in spite of their similarity. Just thought I’d share.

Botanic garden day! You know what that means. Happy day and tons of flower pics. Spent quite a bit of extra time laid out on the grass under the soft afternoon sun with a disappointing iced coffee but a kick-ass brownie. I think all cities everywhere should have botanic gardens of sizable measure. Soooooooo many photos.