It's seven years today since Christchurch was rocked by the magnitude 6.3 earthquake. It killed 185 people, injured thousands more and led to whole suburbs and most of the central city being demolished. Seven years on, the rebuild is still underway and some residents are still struggling to get the repairs they want.
Te Pae, Christchurch's near $450 million convention centre, has been officially opened this afternoon with a pōwhiri and unveiling by Mayor Lianne Dalziel and Minister Megan Woods. Billed as a legacy for the city, it replaces the old centre which was demolished following the Canterbury earthquakes. Niva Chittock is at the ceremony and joins Lisa with the details.
A scheme called Crack'd for Christchurch wants to make a beautiful memorial out of the fine china broken in the earthquake. Jenny Cooper is one of a group of people who plan to create an inner-city mosaic that is an art work in its own right, but also acts as a memorial to old Christchurch.
Christchurch Hospital has just celebrated its 150th anniversary. The major medical facility is in the heart of the city, beside Hagley Park, and played a key role in the February earthquake, treating the many who were seriously injured. Christchurch correspondent Katy Gosset discovers the hospital faces its own quake-related challenges as it plans for the future.
Central Christchurch restaurant and bars say they could be heading into the "worst winter to date". Eight years on from the earthquakes there are more restaurants and bars in the city than ever before - but owners say there aren't enough customers. Now they're grappling with added uncertainty over the effect of the mosque attacks on visitor numbers.
Topics - If you like a quiet time, head for the Spanish city of Seville. Seville's silent summer, they're calling this. They've banned outdoor noise. Seville's been noisy; flamenco singers, old men playing dominoes, bar patrons chatting. The city councillors have now banned most of this, and they seem to have support. Gerry Brownlee the Earthquake Recovery Minister will have the final say over what happens to a piece of land near Christchurch airport, on the corner of Memorial Ave and Russley Road. It's currently zoned as rural, but industrial development could be on the cards. The NYT wonders why with so much violence in movies and games, the big Comic-con pop entertainment convention in San Diego is so peaceful. John Banks snapped phone-driving, we saw at the weekend. John Banks accused of breaking the law again, this time for using a cellphone while driving.
As Auckland and Northland brace for more atrocious weather, city leaders are calling for funding to repair the city's broken infrastructure to be along the lines of the help given to Christchurch after the quakes. Auckland deputy mayor Desley Simpson says that the damage so far is equivalent to the biggest non earthquake event the country has ever had and should be treated accordingly. The Opportunities Party says the "alliance" model established after the earthquakes, was effective and would work for Auckland's rebuild, because it provides a structure that the Central Government can fund directly. ToP leader Raf Manji was a Christchurch councillor after the quakes and closely involved in the rebuild. He tells Kathryn Ryan it is vital to ensure water and transport infrastructure is repaired quickly and efficiently, especially with a view to future extreme weather events - and there is much to learn from the post-quake rebuild.
Christchurch MPs - Labour's Lianne Dalziel and National's Amy Adams - say it's not fair for seat-of-the-pants post-quake red/yellow and green sticker assessments to be formally recorded forever. They say the assessments were hastily done and inconsistent. But the Christchurch City Council says its required to do so under the provisions of the Canterbury Earthquake Response and Recovery Act.
The Afghanistan President has fled the country, there's chaos at the airport and streets are blocked with cars trying to leave the city, the death toll from a devastating 7-point-2-magnitude earthquake in Haiti rises to more than 700, and there are still no arrests after one teenager was killed and another two injured in a stabbing at a Christchurch party.
A new council report into Wellington's resilience has found the city's economy would take a $37 billion hit if it experienced an event like the Christchurch earthquake. Old people stand accused of displacing more than 40,000 teenagers from jobs over the past five years, as more of them choose to stay in the workforce and employers choose experience over youth.
Six years on from the Christchurch earthquakes, one in five residents of the city say the disaster is still taking its toll. The latest wellbeing survey by the Canterbury DHB found people living in north-east and east Christchurch were the most likely to be suffering from issues such as anxiety, from ongoing aftershocks, being in a damaged environment, and surrounded by construction.
After a day of remembering the terrible events of 10 years ago, Christchurch got to celebrate last night with an international T20 match between the Black Caps and Australia. It was the first international match played under lights in the city since the earthquake. Conan Young headed along to Hagley Oval where a sold out crowd was treated to some champagne cricket.
The Duke of Cambridge will meet with survivors of the mosque attacks and members of the public during his second day in Christchurch today. Prince William is visiting the city to pay respects to the survivors of the massacre and those first on the scene on March the 15th. He'll also lay a wreath at the Canterbury earthquake memorial.
As the nation prepares for lockdown, Christchurch's leaders says their city is prepared. Over the past ten years Christchurch has dealt with it's fair share of crisis, from earthquakes, Port Hills fires, the March 15 terror attacks, flooding, and a gas explosion. While Covid-19 has a global impact, some Cantabrians say their past experience will help them get through. Eleisha Foon reports.
Professor Jacky Bowring has been a consultant to both the Ministry for Culture and Heritage, and CERA for the process for the EQ Memorial, as well as for the Christchurch City Council from the early days of the Recovery Plan, when the section on 'Remembering the Earthquakes' was developed. It was one of those times when her areas of research and passion suddenly became very real.
When the 2010 and 2011 earthquakes created a city-wide outdoor research laboratory, UC Civil Engineering Professor Misko Cubrinovski gathered as much information as possible. This work has been recognised by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), which is presenting him with the 2019 Ralph B. Peck Award for "outstanding contributions to the geotechnical engineering profession through the publication of several insightful field case histories"
A story of hope, at least when it comes to the rebuilding challenge ahead, particularly of Christchurch's badly damaged Cathedral. The Australian city of Newcastle suffered a major earthquake in 1989, and over the next few years put huge effort into rebuilding, virtually brick by brick, its ruined Cathedral. John McNaughton, who was the Lord mayor of Newcastle who oversaw the rebuild, joins us.
A second attempt at a symposium aimed at learning from the Canterbury earthquakes has been labelled an attempt to re-write history. The first was cancelled by the previous government two months after it was announced, and after over one hundred and fifty thousand dollars had been spent on preparations. The revamped symposium is a joint venture between the government and the Christchurch City Council.
What does leadership look like in a disaster? David compares Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown's leadership this week with how Bob Parker and Lianne Dalziel coped with the Christchurch earthquakes and terror attacks. He looks at how current Christchurch mayor Phil Mauger's council is faring and whether reality meets the rhetoric and what's happened to the city's Metro Sports facility, one of the anchor projects in the rebuild.
A couple of Christchurch men are collecting letterboxes from the city's red-zoned suburbs, to create sculptures to tell the stories of the homes which have been demolished since the February 2011 earthquake. One of the men is Evan Smith - who co-chairs a group called the Avon-Otakaro Network. It's working toward creating a riverside park along the Avon, where the houses once stood.
Tonight Christchurch's Bread & Circus Buskers festival is swinging into action, and its promising to lure the biggest crowds to the central city since pre-earthquake times. But organisers admit the festival hasn't escaped its dire financial past, despite new management and a rebrand as the Bread and Circus Festival last year. And it it will still be running at a loss until about 2022. Katie Todd reports.
A new exhibition is simply called " 37". The show is by the photographer Doc Ross, features 37 Christchurch people captured on film using a 37 second exposure. The aim: to reflect the length of time their city shook during February 2011's devastating earthquake. Katy Gosset hears some of the stories behind the exhibition and hits the streets to record her own take on the 37 second concept.
Victorian Authorities are warning residents of significant aftershocks following on from the magnitude 5.8 earthquake which shook Melbourne around 9am yesterday, causing significant structural damage across the city. The University of Melbourne's Dr Mark Quigley is a professor of tectonics, who became a familiar voice and face through the Christchurch quakes. Our producer Matthew Theunissen asked him how yesterday's quake compared to those he experienced in Christchurch.
Building plans signed off by the Christchurch City Council show one of its own structural engineers was involved in the design of a new multistorey building that is unstable. The eight-storey office building at 230 High Street is off-limits as it is too weak and might 'rupture' in an earthquake. But the council insists the planning documents are wrong and its engineer had only a minor role. Phil Pennington reports.
A special trauma team has been brought into Christchurch to try to stop a panic exodus of refugees living in the city. Among the 70-thousand people who have fled Christchurch in the last week are refugees who are afraid that another big earthquake will hit. The team is also working with new immigrants, many of whom are victims of war and torture. Dr Arif Saeid is with the organisation Refugees As Survivors.
Sixteen-year-old Sam Mackwell and his mates from St Thomas of Canterbury College have created a device that uses boiling water to charge cellphones, power a light and run a radio. They came up with the idea for the small generator after the first earthquake in Canterbury in September when electricity supplies were cut to much of the city. They call the device"The Lion"and hope to sell it in retail stores soon.
Many Christchurch residents have used shipping containers and other temporary structures to store belongings in while repairs were carried out after the earthquakes. But the Christchurch City Council says it's had an increase in complaints from residents about containers and other temporary structures obscuring neighbours' views or obstructing council berms. Chairman of the council's regulation and consents committee David East says if earthquake repairs are completed, the container may have to go.
A school pool, a BMX bike club and a music school are among twenty organisations in Christchurch that have benefitted from the final grants from an international appeal for re-building the quake-damaged city. The Christchurch Earthquake Appeal has so far raised almost 100 million dollars, and as our reporter Teresa Cowie discovered, the latest 8 million dollars that's been released from the fund is giving a welcome boost to residents.
Canterbury farmers say they're at breaking point. A recent Ministry of Health report presented to MPs shows suicide is up 20 percent in rural areas compared with a drop of 10 per cent in cities and towns. Droughts, floods, earthquakes, farm debt, M Bovis, looming water quality reforms and climate change legislation have Canterbury farmers feeling under the pump. Political reporter Jo Moir has been in the region talking to locals like Chris Allen.
Topics - Hundreds of people have lost their lives in Egypt overnight, and it's expected the death toll will continue to rise. This comes after the military over threw the democratically elected leader last month, and has now forcibly closed down protester camps. Power company Orion - owned by Christchurch City Council and Selwyn District Council - is looking to hike its prices until 2019, to help recover revenue lost because of the Canterbury earthquakes.