Coe & Janet’s 2025 Kiwi Adventure-Post #2

Kia Ora (Māori for “hello” and “goodbye”)

We made it! We are in New Zealand! Considering all the flights and layovers and potential for things to go wrong, our travel here was very smooth. We left home at 10:30am on Thursday and arrived in Christchurch at about 9:30am on Saturday. That was 12:30pm Friday afternoon in the Pacific Northwest, so it took us about 26 hours to get here and we lost another day while doing it. Knock on Manuka wood (a famous tree unique to New Zealand) the airports were relatively empty and smooth sailing, even San Francisco.

As we have the last couple years, we have some small friends of our grandchildren that are traveling with us. Allow me to introduce Minion, Grumpy Pig, Panda, and Axew. They are friends of Hank, Dexter, Clementine, and Arlo, respectively. These four intrepid travelers packed very lightly and made the trip inside Janet’s backpack. They even got x-rayed at security! Here they are posing in front of the airplane that would take us from Seattle to San Francisco.

When we arrived in Christchurch, we did a little grocery shopping for breakfast and lunch supplies, and then checked into our nice rental. It is very clean and centrally located in downtown Christchurch. Janet was tired so she had a rest but I was ready to go exploring. And what did I find but a bakery, surprise, surprise. I didn’t buy anything though, just admired…and drooled.

I spent a long time exploring and learned lots. On Tuesday, Feb. 22nd, 2011 Christchurch experienced a devastating 6.3 magnitude earthquake. This followed a strong earthquake the previous September that weakened buildings, which were then destroyed by the 2011 quake. 185 people died. The local cathedral and many other buildings were badly damaged. Most will never be rebuilt. However, a large effort has been made to restore the cathedral and work continues even now. Here is a picture of what it will eventually look like.

Shortly after the damage to the cathedral, the cathedral staff reached out to a Japanese “emergency architect” named Shigeru Ban. He had designed temporary buildings after earthquakes in Japan. Ban visited Christchurch and designed a “transitional cathedral” made of cardboard, local wood, and steel with a strong polycarbonate roof. I find it very appealing. The roof lets in so much wonderful light.

We hope to attend worship there Sunday morning. It is Church of New Zealand, which is part of the Anglican Communion. Their brochure says: “Whether you come as a visitor, a spiritual seeker, a pilgrim, or someone who is just looking for a calm space in the midst of a busy life, you will find a warm welcome here.” Sounds good to us!

New Zealand has a storied history in WWI, WWII and the Vietnam War. In all those cases, New Zealanders volunteered for service, fought bravely, and many gave their lives. Sadly, New Zealand experienced a greater percentage of death per total population than many other participants in the wars. They valiantly stepped up to answer the call to defend their world neighbors. (Could there be a model there for the USA?) Here is a moving statue in honor of those soldiers. The last line on the engraving is: “Give peace in our time O Lord.” Amen to that!