My wife worked for four years in an office in Christchurch before moving to the Nelson branch.  She was on the 5th (and top) floor of the CTV building near Latimer Square.  That building fell down today.  At the moment it’s still on fire.  Her manager was in Nelson today and together they watched a couple of the Chch staff describing on TV a miraculous escape.  They were at a meeting, about ten people in a room on that 5th floor, plus a baby.  Then the earthquake hit, by all accounts much worse shaking than the September one.  The whole building collapsed, their floor dropped, a wall fell out and they found themselves at ground level, able to be helped out by the people outside. Right now all but one of that team are accounted for, some with serious injuries.  It is remarkable! We have no news about the person still trapped and our thoughts are with her.  These are friends and colleagues.

Photo: TVNZ file

Neither do we know much about the situation of the people on the lower four floors, except that most of them are still trapped in there.  The TV cameras spend a lot of time looking down that street and it’s shocking to see the buildings on either side, with just a smoking gap between them.  When we lived in Christchurch, my wife quite frequently used to help out CTV by filling in for an interview when they had a last-minute ‘no show’.  That TV studio is gone now, somewhere in this pile.

Incidently, I had been watching a different channel.  When my wife rang from work to say that she had seen a shot of the CTV building and it was devastated, I was tempted to reassure her, that is was probably a mistake.  This was the picture she saw.

Another major building to collapse (the PGG building in Cambridge Terrace) holds the office of  the Board Chairman who was my boss during our time in Christchurch.  I hope he and his staff have survived!

We were in Christchurch two weeks ago, walking around the CBD, had lunch in Lyttelton where it is said most of the main street buildings are devastated, and stayed at Diamond Harbour (which was the epicenter for a 4.5 aftershock around 4pm).

Right now we are glad to be alive, and trying our best to give support toi those who need it.

These days it’s the home of all kinds of activities.  For example, this kid is escaping to the fresh air after his Saturday morning music lessons:

The blue pond was not there in my day, but now makes for some interesting images:

Nearby, a plaque on the wall reminds us of Canterbury University’s most famous physicist:

Various shows are held in the quadrangles, sometimes leading to unusual sites,

The doors to the right lead to a small cafe.  I had a wonderful lunch here a year or so ago, when my wife caught up with an old friend.  They had both studied English and History here and were reminiscing  about their student days.  There was a lot of pointing to various windows around the place, references to old professors, phrases that had stuck through all the intervening years.  It was wonderful to sit as an observer, to see those two so engaged.

I’m writing this on Day 4 after the earthquake.  There hasn’t been much said about these building so far, certainly no reports of major damage.  I believe they’ve had a fair bit of strengthening over recent years, so I hope that they have survived in good shape.  I’m heading down to the Canterbury area tomorrow so who knows,  I might be able to give you a status report in a few days.

Incidently, the Engineering School at Canterbury University is renowned for the quality of its earthquake engineering graduates.  I think that shows in the low casualty numbers.  There will be a lot of building designers looking at their work with some pride, I imagine.

Not sure about its seaworthiness though.  Take a closer look at its construction:

Then there were the caravans:

They’re larger (and smaller) than they look:

A walk through Hagley Park is always a delight!

]]> http://www.new-zealand-pictures.com/2010/02/more-outdoor-art/feed/ 0 http://www.new-zealand-pictures.com/2010/02/sand-artist/ http://www.new-zealand-pictures.com/2010/02/sand-artist/#comments Mon, 08 Feb 2010 19:13:36 +0000 Graeme Robertson http://www.new-zealand-pictures.com/?p=932 Peter Donnelly is an artist in Christchurch producing ephemeral works using rather basic equipment:  stick, rake and broom.  His canvas is the sand by the pier at New Brighton, Christchurch.

I think this image captures the exuberance and energy he puts into his work:

That image reminds me of the Japanese kanji character  大, Dai (= large, very appropriate!).

His personal transport is equally idiosyncratic:

Looks rather like a Harley Davidson, doesn’t it?

He does some lovely work (best viewed from helicopter) which lasts for hours (until the tide comes in).  For example, this anniversary image, or this one, his 1000th!.  Long may he continue.

Of course, like all good clowns, the kids in the audience loved him.

He was really gentle with them, persuading them to go up on the stage and do stuff. Here’s a small example. Grandma showed us how good he was at catching popcorn (not very).

This little guy had been jumping up and down shouting “choose me, choose me”.  His job, as it turned out, was not to eat the popcorn but rather serve as a dinner table from which Grandma could eat (using a rather impressive tongue).

Unfortunately, at her first attempt Grandma missed, licking the dinner table instead.  This produced the “yukk” reaction shown here (accompanied by loud vocals):

The kid got over it though, did some more stuff with Grandma and finally was released back to a proud mum.

More buskers soon…..

Clown Loto

the onlookers make great subjects too.

She loves Clown Loto!

An aerial act in the 2008 Festival consisted of a bloke from Dublin and a young woman from Sweden. As part of the process of warming up the crowd, she came forward to the front of the stage and said “Ja, det är så tjusigt att vara här på Nya Zeeland, alla är så vänliga, speciellt här i Christchurch” (it’s so nice to be here in New Zealand, everyone is so friendly, especially in Christchurch) and struck up a pose.  Everybody applauded.

Tina Machina and Kenevil in 'Tumble Circus'

As I used to live in Sweden and understood what she said, I couldn’t resist shouting “Heja Sverige!” (Come on Sweden!).  I was standing at the edge of the crowd behind a whole lot of seated onlookers, holding a camera with a very large lens. I guess I was quite conspicuous, because she pointed to me and said to everybody, in English: “Oh, I forgot to introduce my father.  He’s come all the way from Stockholm to support our act, please give him a big hand.” Everyone turned to look at me and did indeed give me a big hand!

What could I do but take off my hat, and bow in acknowledgement. They’re quick, these buskers!

Bendy Em

Fuse Circus aerial act

The 'Queen of Hearts', from the 2007 World Buskers' Festival.

Again, you can check out further images from the Buskers Festival at my online gallery, in the Canterbury section

For most of the time we spent in Christchurch, from late 2005 through to a year ago, we lived in a suburb called Merivale, only 400 metres or so from New Zealand’s best camera store.

Photo & Video International have a strong web presence, but their store is a real delight with good stocks of new stuff and a great, ever-changing collection of used photo gear.  Living so close, I was usually able to get there on the weekend at their quiet times.  Otherwise I would be rubbing shoulders with other enthusiasts, all suffering from the same disease.  It’s called  “lens lust”.

Most of the staff  greeted me by my first name when I entered the store, which felt good (unless my wife was with me).  They know their stuff too, so one can have a sensible conversation about technical stuff and not feel frustrated. The shop is perfectly located, right opposite a rather expensive shop selling the latest in women’s fashion. This ensured that family trips to the mall did allow me sufficient time in the camera store, but did require self-discipline from both parties.

Greg Bramwell

It’s their 21st birthday this week.  Oh, and the shop does have one sales trick: a special anti-aging mist they spray into the air.  For customers, who experience it for only a few minutes (or hours) at a time, the effect is small but significant.  But for the staff that work there all day it is a huge bonus.  Just look at these pictures of Greg to see how good it is! )

Now we have moved to Nelson I am stuck with using their website, not nearly as emotionally satisfying, so I still try to call in there whenever I get to Christchurch.

Rose had auditioned with a talent agency for fashion and modelling work. Eventually her parents came to the conclusion that the agency was a scam and cancelled their cheque. So no money was lost, but Rose was very disappointed.  Still, she would have been pleased with such a nice picture of herself on the front page.

The second story was about a despicable act by sweet maker Cadbury.  In response to complaints over the years that the Kiwi classic “minties” were too hard, the manufacturers have changed the recipe to make them slightly softer. This was apparently achieved by raising the moisture content slightly.  Apparently, a key attribute of the old minties was the ability to survive for long periods kicking around in the baking hot glovebox of a car. When produced, they had a wonderful ability to silence noisy children.  Anyway, the traditionalists were not amused and the howls of protests made the front page.

I guess this says quite a lot about New Zealand, at least the South Island.  Sometimes not a great deal happens, which is a positive for some (myself included) but which others find pretty boring.