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 3.5km 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 E border between Christchurch trashed CBD & E trashed suburbs.
Stanmore Rd / Swanns Rd: I parked by a steel mesh fence cordoned, ghost shop (later demolished). On the opp cnr, several trashed, 2 storey, brick, ghosts flats were steel mesh fence cordoned. Brick walls had many diagonal cracks, step-like, L shape cracks in the diagonals where mortar was loosened by quakes. The lane going to the flats still had roadside, grey quakemire. The ghost flats were empty, tenants gone. Grass verges were cut, but gardens were overgrown. Mar 2013, the ghost flats would still be fence cordoned awaiting demolition. 2021. New flats 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 designated red zone by CERA. It would be too expensive to reinstate trashed land beside Avon River, so all home owners had to leave & accept 2 NZ National govt buyout offers, or battle EQC & insurers for payouts, repairs or rebuilds for their trashed homes.
I confined my snapping to empty ghost houses, with rampant gardens, grass, shrubs, flowers, weeds. Displaced people were gone. Riverside, I had that creepy feeling again while trekking amongst ghosts, 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 distraught people still lived.
Over the next year odd, when enough people had left red zone housing, after settling with NZ National govt's red zone offer, CERA planned to demolish houses in batches. What would become of the red zone along Avon River was anyone's guess? CERA minister Brownlee was mum.
Swanns Rd & Avonside Dr I trekked were worse than 8 months before: dusty roads, ghost 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: Snapped ghost 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, visiting the Richmond community mushroom patch in the residential red zone by Avon River, the bridge concrete abutment crack, about 2m long & about 10cm wide in places, still wasn't repaired, rusty rebars 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 8 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 Feb 22 Killer Quake, Avon River was an open sewer while Christchurch sewage system was fixed. Only recently had Council declared beaches & rivers safe for water sports again.
Avonside Dr: Holes, cracks were filled in, but road surface was mainly shingled, with some tarseal, allowing remaining residents access to trashed homes. Quakemire still sludged cracked pavements & driveways.
Avonside Dr, near trashed Avonside Girls High School: Snapped ghost houses, overgrown gardens. One ghost house, same as months before, rubble by front garden wall, stripped house wall, rooms exposed, blue tarp, wind flapping.
09.12.11. WORKS END. Quake trashed, red zone, ghost house, Avonside Dr, near Swanns Rd Bridge
Opp Swanns Rd Bridge, Avonside Dr ghost houses, overgrown gardens: long grass, weeds, shrubs, flowers rampant. Like other trashed suburbs, blue, plastic water pipes undulated along pavements, 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: Snapped ghost houses, grey quakemire on pavements.
09.12.11. Liquefaction mud, quake trashed, red zone driveway, Monckton Pl
09.12.11. Quake trashed, red zone, ghost house, Monckton Pl
Trekked along 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 overgrown, not that Canada geese, black swans, nor other waterfowl minded. Nature reclaimed its own. Riverbank slumped, due to lateral spreading, cracks hidden by grass. Tarseal footpath, cracked, lumpy, potholed. Grey mud on 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
Trekked past Sept 4, Darfield Quake trashed, Medway St Footbridge over Avon River, joining Avonside Dr & River Rd. Post quakes, whenever I passed, the twisted span had sunk closer to the water. Footbridge, concrete block cordoned, 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 housing. Two furniture removal trucks, parked roadside, home owners 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 pavements, showing residents still inhabited some houses. When I trekked past, hand sanitiser & crap pongs wafted. Post Sept 4 Darfield Quake, imagine using a pavement 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 8 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 pavements, were half buried in grey quakemire.
09.12.11. Quake trashed, red zone, ghost house, Avonside Dr
Avonside Dr: While trekking, I kept an eye 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, ghost 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: Snapped overgrown gardens, ghost houses, 15 along one section, matrixed by a few inhabited houses, lawns cut. On Robson Ave cnr, by a tilted, power pole, I snapped an overgrown demolition site, 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 1m. Concrete drain would be demolished. Opp riverbank,Dallington 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 drain cleaning, CCTV truck flushed polluted water onto Avonside Dr. Fifteen months post 04.09.10 Darfield Quake, Avonside Dr residents were still in shit. Fungi & shit were below floor boards & fungi grew on walls. Red zoners would have respiratory complaints, children sick.
Post quakes, I had an allergic reaction to windblown bacterial & fungal spores, from septic muck in red zones. My nasal cavities congested in warm, dry, windy weather, 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. That only happened post quakes, different allergy to my spring, hay fevers. Dreaded thinking of asbestos dust, silicon dust, chromium dust, copper dust, arsenic dust blown from demolition sites. Yet my urge to document Christchurch quake destruction would obsess me for another 2 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: Stopped snapping, I'd seen enough red zone ghosts that sunny afternoon. Eight months before, I'd snapped abandoned, boarded flats. Grey quakemire, still there.
09.12.11. Post quake, red zone, ghost house, Avonside Dr
Over the past 15 months, I became used to seeing destruction. Avonside liquefaction prone area 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 house demolitions, the area could become part of city to sea, Avon River Park. A memorial to shattered, displaced lives.
Over the next couple of years, most red zone, ghost houses 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:
Jan 2016. A teacher friend who lived in Dallington 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 zone, fruit trees."
Content & pics Copyright Mark JS Esslemont.
See NIWA water & atmospheric research.
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