As Christchurch prepares to mark 10 years since its deadly earthquake, the impact of that day continues to be felt differently. The less affluent eastern suburbs, which bore the brunt of the damage, continue to lag behind the rest of the city in their recovery. The former dean of Christchurch and fellow east sider, Peter Beck, told Conan Young that while government agencies such as EQC often failed people in their hour of need, what did not fail was the willingness of people to help out their neighbours.
In the years that have followed the devastating Christchurch earthquake, there have been many stories of the struggles people have faced.
Tonight we bring you the tale of the little school in Christchurch's east that took on Wellington's big decision makers and won.
Redcliffs School finally reopened last year, after spending the best part of a decade battling for its survival.
Our reporter Nick Truebridge and cameraman Nate McKinnon caught up with Redcliffs' principal Rose McInerney to reflect on a tumultuous last 10 years.
Motoko Kakubayashi joins us from Toyko where they are also about to mark a significant anniversary. A few weeks after the 2011 Christchurch earthquake, a magnitude 9.0 earthquake hit the east coast of Japan, triggering a tsunami that destroyed large parts of the coast, including damage to the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant. More than 15,000 lives were lost, more than 2000 still remain missing. In one afternoon, half a million people became homeless, and the search for family and friends at evacuation shelters began.
