Creepy Christchurch

Christchurch’s a rather welcoming city, quite inexpensive except for accomodation.

We arrived in the afternoon but spent our first few hours in Christchurch sleeping in ou hostel (Around the world backpackers). The last 2 nights ihours in australia, we slept in the car to avoid spending more money in hotels, so we were a little bit tired!

Which is why our first walk in Christchurch was at nigh, while looking for a place to have dinner.

Christchurch experienced Avery bad earthquake in 2011 which left 185 people dead. Since then it’s been reconstructing steadily, much is still to do. Some rehabilitation projets won’t be finished until a few years, but some buildings are still waiting for a decision regarding their future… Like the very big cathedral, which is still collapsing little by little since 2011.

At night it’s rather creepy… Even creepier than the crappy Salem Ghost Tour we’ve done last summer in the US.

Abandoned buildings, long closed restaurants with a still readable menu on the door, lots of fences, and old partly destroyed mansions that look like perfect filming locations for American Horror Story.

But there’s fun stuff too: supermarkets where you can choose the music that is playing, an outdoor dance-o-mat on the middle of the city (put $2 in, plug your iPod, and you can dance to your very loud music for 30 mn and have people stare at you), a restaurant on a tram, plenty of beautiful urban murals, and even a Lego rendition of Middle Earth…

A few pics!!!