Christchurch

We had a bit of a delay leaving Sydney today. Our flight was on Emirates, and the plane we were on was late coming out of Bangkok. So it goes. I was just happy we didn't need to make a connection or an important appointment once we got to Christchurch. 

When we got to the city, we saw the various states of demolition and construction around town. There had been a significant earthquake in 2011, and a lot of buildings had to be completely torn down and rebuilt. It's really kind of sad. An awful lot of the town looks like this: 

 

As you may surmise, Christchurch features a very old church pretty prominently, but it was so damaged that apparently, a debate is still raging about he necessity to repair it. At a certain point, it's a conversation about diminishing returns, and different people have different limitations. 

Apparently, though, the clever Episcopalians who are very into their churches here in Christchurch have built what is to be a temporary house of worship, designed to last up to 75 years. They call it the cardboard church. I looked that one up, because a quick look at the outside- even when Cas and I walked right up to it- didn't show us any cardboard. Evidently, part of the structure was built with sturdy cardboard tubes. The rest was done with wood and glass.  

I didn't personally find it particularly pretty, but everybody's a critic, right?  Here- judge for yourself: 

 

Cas and I have a dinner tonight with a kiwi family, and we're supposed to head out for that in about a half hour. It is an interesting feature of the trip- we and two other people will have dinner in the home of a family we've never met. It should be okay, though, because we're bringing wine.