Three weeks after the February 22nd quake and Lyttelton – the town at the epicentre - is still awash with rubble. Red volcanic stone walls, built over a century ago by hard labour gangs, have crumbled onto the streets and footpaths. The commercial zone of Norwich Quay is virtually uninhabited. One of the most-captured images of the town is a Norwich Quay café – it’s façade completely collapsed, a Subaru Legacy completely flattened under the bricks and the first floor sitting rooms laid bare and exposed like a doll’s house. Down Norwich Quay and up around the corner onto Oxford Street are red stickers – too many to count. Steel fences barely contain the rubble.
For Heritage Magazine, a look at my home town just after the devastating 2011 earthquakes.
Three weeks after the February 22nd quake and Lyttelton – the town at the epicentre - is still awash with rubble. Red volcanic stone walls, built over a century ago by hard labour gangs, have crumbled onto the streets and footpaths. The commercial zone of Norwich Quay is virtually uninhabited. One of the most-captured images of the town is a Norwich Quay café – it’s façade completely collapsed, a Subaru Legacy completely flattened under the bricks and the first floor sitting rooms laid bare and exposed like a doll’s house. Down Norwich Quay and up around the corner onto Oxford Street are red stickers – too many to count. Steel fences barely contain the rubble. |
AboutKris Herbert is an award-winning freelance journalist with 24 years experience (she started writing for the local rag when she was 16 - you do the maths). Read by date
June 2014
Read by tag
All
|