09.12.11. Steel mesh fence cordon. Quake trashed, ghost shop, Swanns Rd / Stanmore Rd. The shop would be demolished
Eight months later, I trekked Swanns Rd & Avonside Dr to Bowie Pl, all within three & a half kilometres of Leah's London St school near Stanmore Rd. Swanns Rd went off Stanmore Rd to Avon River & began about 500m from Leah's school-gate. Stanmore Rd was the eastern border between Christchurch's ruined-CBD & eastern ruined-suburbs.
Stanmore Rd / Swanns Rd: I parked by a steel-mesh-fence-cordoned ruined-shop (later demolished). On the opposite corner, several ruined, two-storey brick-apartments were steel-mesh-fence-cordoned. Brick-walls had many diagonal-cracks, step-like, L shaped cracks in the diagonals where mortar was loosened by quakes. The lane going to the flats still had roadside grey-quakemire. The ruined-apartments were abandoned. Grass-verges were cut, but gardens were overgrown. March 2013, the ruined-apartments would still be fence-cordoned awaiting demolition. 2021. New apartments had been built on-site.
09.12.11. Steel mesh fence cordon. Quake trashed, ghost flats, Swanns Rd / Stanmore Rd. The flats would be demolished. 2021. New flats had been built on site
Since June, the Avon River horseshoe bend where I trekked was red-zoned by CERA. It would be too expensive to reinstate ruined-land beside Avon River, so all home-owners had to leave & accept two NZ National government buyout-offers, or battle EQC & insurers for payouts, repairs or rebuilds for their ruined-homes.
I confined my snapping to abandoned ruined-houses, with rampant gardens, rampant grass, rampant shrubs, rampant flowers & rampant weeds. Displaced people were gone. Riverside, I had that creepy feeling again while trekking amongst ruins, like I was watched.
I didn't snap houses where people still resided, cars in driveways, grass cut, curtains twitching. There were many houses along Swanns Rd & Avonside Dr where quake-survivors still lived.
Over the next year odd, when enough people had left red-zone housing, after settling with NZ National government's red-zone offer, CERA planned to demolish houses in batches. What would become of red-zones beside Avon River was anyone's guess? CERA minister Brownlee was mum.
Swanns Rd & Avonside Dr I trekked were worse than eight months before: dusty-roads, ruined-houses, overgrown-gardens, weedy & cracked driveways.
09.12.11. Quake trashed, ghost house, Swanns Rd
09.12.11. Quake trashed, ghost house, Swanns Rd / River Rd
Swanns Rd: I snapped ruined-houses. Swanns Rd Bridge was in bad condition, cracks both sides of the bridge along Avon River banks. Bridge-joins by spans & abutments were badly cracked, yet cars still drove over the bridge. Orange-pumps on Avon River banks pumped sludge though black-plastic-pipes. 2022. When I trekked that way again, while visiting the Richmond community mushroom patch in the residential- red-zone by Avon River, the bridge's concrete-abutment crack, about two metres long & about 10cm wide in places, still wasn't repaired: rusty rebars were exposed to the elements.
09.12.11. Orange, plastic, road cone cordon. Quake trashed roads, ghost house, Swanns Rd / River Rd
09.12.11. Orange, plastic, road cone cordon. Orange pump, quake trashed roadside by Swanns Rd Bridge, Swanns Rd / River Rd
Swanns Rd / River Rd: An orange-pump I'd seen eight months before, in the middle of the cracked, lumpy road, still pumped sludge. On Avon River bank, Avonside Dr side, a group of NIWA, water & atmospheric research workers, in brown-waders, took water-samples.
09.12.11. Orange, plastic, road cone cordon. Quake trashed Avonside Dr by Swanns Rd Bridge
09.12.11. Quake damaged Swanns Rd Bridge, seen from Avonside Dr
09.12.11. Orange pump, Avon River bank by Swanns Rd Bridge, Avonside Dr
For months post 22 February 2011 Quake, Avon River was an open-sewer while Christchurch's sewage-system was fixed. Only recently had Council declared beaches & rivers safe for water-sports again.
Avonside Dr: Holes & cracks were filled in, but the road-surface was mainly shingled, with some tarseal, allowing remaining residents access to trashed homes. Quakemire still sludged cracked-footpaths & cracked-driveways.
Avonside Dr near trashed Avonside Girls High School: I snapped ruined-houses & overgrown gardens. One ruin, same as months before: rubble before front garden-wall, stripped house-wall, rooms exposed, blue-tarp flapping in the wind.
09.12.11. WORKS END. Quake trashed, red zone, ghost house, Avonside Dr, near Swanns Rd Bridge
Opposite Swanns Rd Bridge were Avonside Dr ruined-houses with overgrown-gardens: long grass, weeds & shrubs & flowers rampant. Like other ruined-suburbs, blue-plastic-water-pipes undulated along footpaths, quakemire-buried in places.
09.12.11. Quake trashed, red zone, ghost house, Avonside Dr, near Swanns Rd Bridge
09.12.11. Quake trashed, red zone, ghost house, Avonside Dr
Monckton Pl off Avonside Dr: I snapped ruined-houses, grey-quakemire on footpaths.
09.12.11. Liquefaction mud, quake trashed, red zone driveway, Monckton Pl
09.12.11. Quake trashed, red zone, ghost house, Monckton Pl
I trekked along the stopbank between Avon River & Avonside Dr. Since I'd last passed, the stopbank had hardened, shingle on top, weeds growing on slopes.
09.12.11. Post Feb 22 quake, red zone stopbank, between Avon River & Avonside Dr
09.12.11. Red zone, Avonside Dr, post Feb 22 quake stopbank view, Canada geese in Avon River. River Rd on opp bank
Riverbanks were overgrown, not that Canada geese, black swans, nor other waterfowl minded. Nature reclaimed its own. Riverbank were slumped due to lateral-spreading, deep-cracks hidden by grass. The Tarseal-footpath was cracked, lumpy & potholed. Grey-mud on the footpath showed tidal- flooding by raised Avon River.
09.12.11. Blue, plastic, water pipe. Steel mesh fence cordon. Post quake, red zone, ghost houses, Avonside Dr
09.12.11. Post quake, red zone, ghost house, Avonside Dr
I trekked past 4 September 2010 Quake ruined Medway St Footbridge over Avon River which joined Avonside Dr & River Rd. Post-quakes, whenever I passed, the twisted-span had sunk closer to the water. The footbridge was concrete-block-cordoned on both riverbanks. Early 2013, Medway St Footbridge would be deconstructed for heritage-storage at Ferrymead. May 2022, new Medway St Footbridge would be opened.
09.12.11. Sept 4, quake trashed, Medway St Footbridge over Avon River, between Avonside Dr & River Rd
09.12.11. Quake trashed, red zone, ghost house, Avonside Dr
09.12.11. Quake trashed, red zone footpath by Avon River, Avonside Dr. River Rd on opp bank
09.12.11. Quake trashed, red zone, ghost house, Avonside Dr
09.12.11. Quake trashed, red zone, ghost house, Avonside Dr. Green, plastic sewage tank on pavement
09.12.11. Quake trashed, red zone, ghost house, Avonside Dr
Avonside Dr: Beside Avon River, I saw brown-puddles roadside & riverside, as river-water seeped through to ruined-housing. Two furniture-removal trucks were parked roadside, as home-owners were relocating.
09.12.11. Post quake, Avonside Dr view, Avon River footbridge, River Rd / Dallington Tce
09.12.11. Avon River flooding, quake trashed footpath. Avonside Dr stopbank right. Dallington Tce left
09.12.11. Quake trashed, Avon River bank bench & footpath. Post Feb 22 quake stopbank, removal van behind, Avonside Dr
Portaloos lined overgrown Avonside Dr footpaths, showing residents still inhabited some houses. When I trekked past, hand-sanitiser pongs & crap pongs wafted. Post 4 September 2010 Quake, imagine using a footpath-portaloo for 15 months...
09.12.11. Quake trashed, red zone, ghost house, Avonside Dr
Things would get worse for residents when CERA-demolishers arrived: dust; clanking, ripping machinery; trucks rumbling by.
09.12.11. Quake trashed, red zone, ghost house, Avonside Dr
Orange-pumps I'd seen eight months before in the middle of Avonside Dr still pumped sludge. Diesel fumes & noise polluted. Plastic-pipes for pumped sludge lined weedy roadsides. Blue-plastic-water-pipes along cracked-footpaths were half buried in grey-quakemire.
09.12.11. Quake trashed, red zone, ghost house, Avonside Dr
Avonside Dr: While trekking, I watched-out for tilted power-poles & low hanging power-lines. Several places en route, I could've jumped & touched hanging power-lines. Green-stickers on red-zone ruined-housing showed that power was cut.
09.12.11. Overgrown, post quake, red zone, house demolition site, Avonside Dr / Robson Ave. Dallington Tce on opp Avon River bank
09.12.11. Liquefaction mud, quake flooding, Avonside Dr / Robson Ave
Robson Ave to Morris St junctions: I snapped overgrown-gardens & ruined-houses, 15 along one section, matrixed by a few inhabited-houses, lawns cut. On Robson Ave corner, by a tilted power-pole I snapped an overgrown demolition-site with flowers growing in rubble.
09.12.11. Quake trashed, red zone, ghost house, Avonside Dr
09.12.11. Orange, plastic, road cones, steel mesh fence cordon. Orange pump, middle of red zone, Avonside Dr, nr Morris St junction
09.12.11. Quake trashed, tilted, red zone, concrete drain, Avonside Dr. Dallington Tce on opp Avon River bank. The drain would be demolished
Avon River bank, at a raised, muddy river-bend, two teenage boys sat on steps of a concrete-drain tilt-raised about one metre. The concrete- drain would be demolished. On the opposite riverbank onDallington Tce contractors repaired the road.
09.12.11. Quake trashed, red zone, ghost house, Avonside Dr
09.12.11. Quake trashed, overgrown, red zone driveway, Avonside Dr
09.12.11. Liquefaction mud, quake trashed pavement, Avonside Dr
09.12.11. Quake trashed, red zone, ghost house, Avonside Dr
Near Bowie Pl, a a drain-cleaning CCTV-truck flushed polluted-water onto Avonside Dr. Fifteen months post 4 September 2010 Quake, Avonside Dr residents were still in shit. Fungi & shit were below floor-boards & fungi grew on walls. Red-zoners would have respiratory-complaints & sick children.
Post-quakes, I had an allergic reaction to windblown bacterial spores & fungal spores from septic muck in red-zones. My nasal cavities congested in warm, dry, windy weather, an allergic reaction only easing when weather became moist again. Sometimes my nasal cavities congested for days. Leah said my snoring increased, impossible to breath through my nose during dry times. I dreaded thinking of asbestos-dust, silicon-dust, chromium-dust, copper-dust & arsenic-dust blown from demolition-sites. Yet my urge to document ruined Christchurch would obsess me for another two years!
09.12.11. Post quake, drain cleaning, CCTV truck, Avonside Dr.
09.12.11. Avonside Dr view, post quake, black swans, Avon River. Dallington Tce, post quake stopbank on opp bank
Bowie Pl: I stopped snapping, I'd seen enough red-zone ruins that sunny afternoon. Eight months before, I'd snapped abandoned, one-storey, boarded Council apartments. Grey-quakemire was still there.
09.12.11. Post quake, red zone, ghost house, Avonside Dr
Over the past 15 months, I became used to seeing ruins. Liquefaction-prone Avonside was shaken from First World to Third World in terrifying, muddy seconds. Avon River Park petition forms for signatures had circulated for weeks. Including river, mature trees, fecundity, imminent demolitions, the area would become city-to-sea Avon River parkland. A memorial to shattered, displaced lives.
Over the next couple of years, most red-zone ruins I snapped beside Swanns Rd & Avonside Dr would be demolished by CERA.
09.12.11. Post Feb 22 quake, red zone stopbank, between Avonside Dr & Avon River, near Bowie Pl
09.12.11. Blue, plastic, water pipe. Post quake, red zone, ghost house, Avonside Dr, near Bowie Pl
09.12.11. Post quake, red zone, overgrown driveway, Avonside Dr, near Bowie Pl
*Trekked Swanns Rd, Avonside Dr. 152 snaps.
Coda:
January 2016. A teacher friend who lived in Dallington's green-zone near CERA's red-zone said, "Although CERA has fenced off demolition-sites along Avon River, people still dumped rubbish in the red-zone! Positively, I enjoy picking fruit from red-zoned fruit trees."
Content & pics Copyright Mark JS Esslemont.
See NIWA water & atmospheric research.
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