Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Willowbank Wildlife Reserve
ZOO
(
www.willowbank.co.nz
;
60 Hussey Rd, Northwood; adult/child $28/11; 9.30am-7pm Oct-Apr, to
5pm May-Sep)
About 10km north of the central city, Willowbank focuses on native
NZ critters (including kiwis), heritage farmyard animals and hands-on enclosures with
wallabies, deer and lemurs. There's also a re-created Maori village. In the evening this is
perience, which includes a traditional Maori welcome, cultural performance and
hangi
(earth oven) meal.
THE CANTERBURY EARTHQUAKES
Christchurch's seismic nightmare began at 4.35am on 4 September 2010. Centred
40km west of the city, a 40-second, 7.1-magnitude earthquake jolted Cantabrians
from their sleep, and caused widespread damage to older buildings in the central
city. Close to the quake's epicentre in rural Darfield, huge gashes erupted amid
grassy pastures and the South Island's main railway line was bent and buckled. Be-
cause the tremor struck in the early hours of the morning when most people were
home in bed, there were no fatalities, and many Christchurch residents felt that the
city had dodged a bullet.
Fast forward to 12.51pm on 22 February 2011, when central Christchurch was
busy with shoppers and workers enjoying their lunch break. This time the
6.3-magnitude quake was much closer, centred just 10km southeast of the city and
only 5km deep. The tremor was significantly more extreme, and many locals report
being flung violently and almost vertically into the air. The peak ground accelera-
tion exceeded 1.8, almost twice the acceleration of gravity.
When the dust settled after 24 traumatic seconds, NZ's second-largest city had
changed forever. The towering spire of the iconic ChristChurch Cathedral lay in ru-
ins; walls and verandahs had cascaded down on shopping strips; and two
multistorey buildings had pancaked. Of the 185 deaths (across 20 nationalities),
115 occurred in the six-storey Canterbury TV building, where many international
students at a language school were killed. Elsewhere, the historic port town of Lyt-
telton was badly damaged; roads and bridges were crumpled; and residential sub-
urbs in the east were inundated as a process of rapid liquefaction saw tonnes of
oozy silt rise from the ground.
In the months that followed literally hundreds of aftershocks rattled the city's
traumatised residents (and claimed one more life), but the resilience and bravery
of Cantabrians quickly became evident. From the region's rural heartland, the
'Farmy Army' descended on the city, armed with shovels and food hampers. Social
media mobilised 10,000 students, and the Student Volunteer Army became a vital
force for residential clean-ups in the city's beleaguered eastern suburbs. Heartfelt
