House Swapping in Christchurch
Tag Archives: Christchurch
Cyclone Gita!
Earlier in the week New Zealand caught the tail end of Cyclone Gita. In parts of the South Island there was flooding and a state of emergency was declared in some places including Christchurch. One family near the Abel Tasman at the top of the South Island had to swim through flood water to safety..
Here in Wellington we were battered with wind and torrential rain, and the airport was closed for a while but most Wellingtonians dismissed it as nothing more than the usual windy weather, if not a whole lot wetter than normal!
River Avon Walkway Revisited..
Six years ago – before the Christchurch quakes – we did our first house swapping trip to New Zealand and loved it. In Christchurch we stayed in
two different homes. Both were damaged in the quakes but one more severely than the other due in part to liquefaction and it is only
just starting to be rebuilt. It’s been a tough few years for our house swapper friend… We walked past the house yesterday and attempted our favourite walk from that time – along the River Avon into the city.
Parts were as we remembered it, but the city centre took a real hit in the quakes and there is still a lot of building work going on with areas of the river cordoned off. It looks as if it will be some time yet before it feels like the popular leafy track of six years ago.