09.01.12. Drove trashed New Brighton Rd, past The Palms mall, over lumps, bumps, past sunken Locksley Ave cnr, where lumpy, patched road sunk below Avon River level, past quake-slipping Avondale Rd Bridge, past junked Anzac Dr Bridge & all its associated swamp & river wreckage, past cracked Wainoni Rd Bridge, to broken Pages Rd Bridge.
New Brighton Rd: I wanted to trek a red zone, upriver section, from Baker St to Barkers Ln, near Anzac Rd Bridge. Near Barkers Ln, I would trek Waygreen Ave, red zone wasteland, then see red zone, liquefaction hell along Atlantis St St & bits of red zone Chimera Cres to Travis Rd by QE11, then return to New Brighton Rd, via the liquefactioned, waterway track, parallel to Anzac Dr, between Travis Wetland & Avon River.
CERA Landcheck website, land status of New Brighton roads I trekked:
New Brighton Rd: 249 properties, 247 red zone, 2 green zone.
Waygreen Ave: 37 properties, all red zone.
Atlantis St: 54 properties, 48 red zone, 6 green zone.
Pennyburn Pl: 14 properties, all red zone.
Chimera Cres: 46 properties, 45 red zone, 1 green zone.
Chimera described those red zone roads & ghost houses well. Wishful thinking that some could be repaired, all houses were built on swampland, which had sunk in the quakes. Why were geotech engineers Tonkin & Taylor zoning 2% green zone in that red zone swamp? If any of those green zoners stayed, they'd end up driving on dusty, shingle roads, living in dusty houses, using long drops, generators & water cisterns. What was the point of Council maintaining infrastructure for so few green zone houses? Saving some green zoners would give a semblance of city en route to New Brighton & Southshore. Those seaside suburbs would still need decent roads & infrastructure.
09.01.12. Yellow irises, Baker St / New Brighton Rd, post 23.12.11 quake swarm
09.01.12. Red zone house, New Brighton Rd, post 23.12.11 quake swarm
09.01.12. Sand bag, white, plastic, road barrier, orange, plastic, road cone cordon. Serial quake damage, New Brighton Rd, nr Baker St, post 23.12.11 quake swarm
09.01.12. Red zone house, New Brighton Rd, post 23.12.11 quake swarm
09.01.12. Serial quake trashed Orion substation, Palmers Rd / New Brighton Rd, post 23.12.11 quake swarm. The substation would be demolished
09.01.12. Liquefaction boil, 23.12.11 quake swarm, Palmers Rd / New Brighton Rd
09.01.12. Quake trashed road sign. New Brighton Rd / Palmers Rd, by Avon River stopbank, post 23.12.11 quake swarm
09.01.12. Red zone house, New Brighton Rd, post 23.12.11 quake swarm
From Baker St, New Brighton Rd: Trekked past Palmers Rd to Bower Ave, snapping ghost houses en route, most gardens overgrown. Passed an Orion substation ghost & a veterinary clinic ghost. Summer flowers grew in some overgrown gardens: irises, lilies, roses, poppies, hydrangeas, agapanthus, rhododendrons...
09.01.12. Red zone house, New Brighton Rd, post 23.12.11 quake swarm
Chatted to a grizzled, old man. We agreed that town clerk Marryatt's recent $68 000 pay rise was "a bloody insult" to red zoners, while Marryatt practised his golf swing at ratepayers' expense. Never mind Marryatt's holiday in Queensland during the recent Xmas Quake Swarm. While Marryatt holidayed, Christchurch citizens once more dug themselves out of grey quakemire.
09.01.12. Green, plastic, sewage tank, Council election board, New Brighton Rd / Bower Ave, post 23.12.11 quake swarm
09.01.12. Red zone house, New Brighton Rd, post 23.12.11 quake swarm
09.01.12. Avon River stopbank & swamp, New Brighton Rd, post 23.12.11 quake swarm
09.01.12. Red zone house, New Brighton Rd, post 23.12.11 quake swarm
09.01.12. Serial quake trashed Orion substation, New Brighton Rd / Palmers Rd, post 23.12.11 quake swarm. The substation would be demolished
New Brighton Rd, downriver back to Baker St: Sunny afternoon, I returned to my car along Avon River stopbank, snapping red zone, ghost houses, overgrown gardens, the Orion substation ghost, veterinary clinic ghost, views of riverside swamp filled with raupo & flax. Beyond, distant Port Hills. Trekked over dried, liquefaction boils on top of the stopbank. As quakemire had pushed through the top of the stopbank it wasn't much good.
09.01.12. Flax & raupo swamp, Avon River, New Brighton Rd, post 23.12.11 quake swarm. Port Hills backdrop
09.01.12. Dried liquefaction boils, Avon River stopbank, New Brighton Rd, post 23.12.11 quake swarm
09.01.12. Serial quake damaged drain, New Brighton Rd, post 23.12.11 quake swarm
New Brighton Rd: From Baker St, I drove past Bower Ave & Wainoni Rd crossings & parked by Wattle Dr, which I would trek another day. Snapped more red zone, ghost houses, overgrown gardens, New Brighton Rd.
09.01.12. Red zone house, New Brighton Rd, post 23.12.11 quake swarm
Waygreen Ave: Although I'd trekked ghostlands for over a year so far, I wasn't immune to new horrors: grey quakemire everywhere, red zone, ghost housing, overgrown gardens, mud piles, flooding roadside. Slimy pools, stagnant water by ghost houses. Muddy carpets in gardens.
09.01.12. Quake flooding, New Brighton Rd / Waygreen Ave, post 23.12.11 quake swarm
09.01.12. Liquefactioned house, New Brighton Rd / Waygreen Ave, post 23.12.11 quake swarm
09.01.12. Red zone house, New Brighton Rd / Waygreen Ave, post 23.12.11 quake swarm
09.01.12. Flooded, liquefactioned red zone, Waygreen Ave, post 23.12.11 quake swarm
09.01.12. Red zone house, Waygreen Ave, post 23.12.11 quake swarm
Followed road flooding from New Brighton Rd a short way up Waygreen Ave, to a cracked driveway, where a burst water pipe flooded the muddy street. Council had water restrictions, but allowed that water wastage.
09.01.12. Quake burst, water pipe, flooded driveway, red zone Waygreen Ave, post 23.12.11 quake swarm
After 16 months of quakes, Waygreen Ave: disgusting, neglected by CERA & Council. Bright, sunny day, I was spooked by liquefactioned ghost houses.
09.01.12. Red zone house, Waygreen Ave, post 23.12.11 quake swarm
Student Volunteer Army diggers, Farmy Army diggers, contractors had done nothing about clearing Waygreen Ave. Novelty & media hype about volunteer, post quakes' mud digging worn thin. Last time I'd seen student diggers was in Halswell, post Sept 4 Darfield Quake, over a year before.
09.01.12. Red zone house, Waygreen Ave, post 23.12.11 quake swarm
Blonde woman drove up to her damaged home, tried talking to me. I told her I was deaf. Exasperated, she flapped her hand & left. Propagandists called that rudeness "resilience," PM John Key called her "psychological." Take your pick.
09.01.12. Southern view, liquefactioned, red zone, Waygreen Ave, post 23.12.11 quake swarm
09.01.12. Red zone house, Waygreen Ave, post 23.12.11 quake swarm
Town Clerk Marryatt & mayor Parker: red zone, ghost housing & roads, still under their Council control, were left to ruin. Why were Council & CERA doing nothing about saving those red zone houses? Land was destroyed by liquefaction, reverting to swampland, but many Waygreen Ave houses looked liveable.
09.01.12. Red zone house, Waygreen Ave, post 23.12.11 quake swarm
Meanwhile, red zoned house owners still paid mortgages, rates, costs of relocations & rentals, while negotiating with NZ National govt / CERA & / or insurers for payouts.
09.01.12. Red zone house, Waygreen Ave, post 23.12.11 quake swarm
Seismologist Berryman, at a Hagley Park, closed video, information session for the privileged few, jabbered about historical quakes with silly map & graph & blamed quake survivors for losing confidence. An aftershock struck & Berryman wrongly guessed the M5 quake shaking his chat to mayor Parker, CERA minister Brownlee, et al. Leah's primary school kids were better at guesstimating quake mags than seismologist Berryman!
Atlantis St: Sinking into grey quakemire, some mud cleared. Many ghost houses, gardens overgrown.
09.01.12. Liquefactioned, red zone, Atlantis St to Wattle Dr junction, post 23.12.11 quake swarm
09.01.12. Liquefactioned, red zone, Atlantis St, post 23.12.11 quake swarm
09.01.12. Green, plastic, sewage tank, red zone, Atlantis St, post 23.12.11 quake swarm
09.01.12. Locked gate, Kate Sheppard Retirement Village, Atlantis St, post 23.12.11 quake swarm
Atlantis St: By a green, plastic, sewage tank, Kate Sheppard Retirement Village, liquefaction hell, all ghosts houses, gardens overgrown, back gate, chained closed, locked. All gates around the complex I passed were chained, locked.
2014. Luke would do salvage work at Kate Sheppard Retirement Village. By the time he'd finished, there was nothing left of the village.
09.01.12. Red zone, Atlantis St, post 23.12.11 quake swarm
Atlantis St: A hand-drawn 10 km/h, speed limit sign, on top of a pile of grey liquefaction mud. Hand-drawn, slow down signs symbolised slow rebuild by Council & CERA; slow payouts by EQC & insurers. It would be years before EQC & insurers completed payouts, repairs, rebuilds for 1 000s of quake claimants.
Passed red zone, Pennyburn Pl, liquefaction muddied, ghost houses, gardens overgrown. Sewage stink wafted from grey, muddy, road damage at the end of Pennyburn Pl.
09.01.12. Red zone, Atlantis St / Pennyburn Pl, post 23.12.11 quake swarm
Atlantis St: Team of orange, Hi-Vis vested contractors, working spades & diggers, fixed a smelly, muddy drain. Freshly graded mud stank of crap. Gloomy, little boy stared from a muddy driveway. "Psychological" or "resilient"?
09.01.12. Red zone, Atlantis St, post 23.12.11 quake swarm
09.01.12. Red zone, Atlantis St / Chimera Cres, post 23.12.11 quake swarm
09.01.12. Contractors fixing a drain, red zone, Atlantis St, post 23.12.11 quake swarm
Atlantis St: More inhabited than Waygreen Ave, some cars parked in driveways. Liquefaction muddied carpets in gardens.
09.01.12. Liquefactioned carpets in overgrown garden, red zone, Atlantis St, post 23.12.11 quake swarm
09.01.12. Red zone house, Atlantis St, post 23.12.11 quake swarm
Chimera Cres: Just as badly liquefactioned. Ghost houses, gardens overgrown.
09.01.12. Chimera Cres / Atlantis St, post 23.12.11 quake swarm
09.01.12. Liquefactioned, red zone housing, Chimera Cres, post 23.12.11 quake swarm
09.01.12. Contractor truck, Atlantis St / Chimera Cres, post 23.12.11 quake swarm
Travis Dr: Trekked to Anzac Dr, past the end of QE11 Park.
09.01.12. Road signs, Travis Dr, post 23.12.11 quake swarm
Sewage-brown waterway between Chimera Cres / Barkers Ln & Anzac Dr: Trekked back to New Brighton Rd on the waterway track, waterfowl in recently dredged waterway, mud piles on Anzac Dr bank, liquefaction mud boils on walkway grass.
09.01.12. Liquefactioned waterway track, between Chimera Cres & Anzac Dr, post 23.12.11 quake swarm
09.01.12. Dried liquefaction boil, waterway track, Chimera Cres, post 23.12.11 quake swarm
09.01.12. Hebe, waterway track, Chimera Cres, post 23.12.11 quake swarm
09.01.12. Liquefactioned, red zone housing, Chimera Cres, seen from waterway track, post 23.12.11 quake swarm
09.01.12. Liquefactioned waterway track, between Chimera Cres & Anzac Dr, post 23.12.11 quake swarm
09.01.12. Liquefactioned house, Chimera Cres, seen from waterway track, post 23.12.11 quake swarm
Passed liquefactioned, ghost houses, obscured by shrubbery, white hebe flowers blooming, by the waterway. At one point, I returned to Chimera Cres snapping liquefactioned, ghost houses & a fence-to-fence liquefactioned, ghost playground, play equipment abandoned. No kids. Just grey dust, massive, dried, mud boils. I spat dust in the wind. Yellow, front-end-loader passed on the dusty road.
09.01.12. Liquefactioned kids' playground & housing, Chimera Cres, post 23.12.11 quake swarm
Those still living in the red zone & nearby green zone, were in a dust bowl, respiratory ailments pending.
09.01.12. Liquefactioned, red zone, Chimera Cres, post 23.12.11 quake swarm
Over a sewage-brown creek, I crossed a wooden footbridge, sliced in half by a quake. Bridge bits were horizontally moved, more than a foot.
09.01.12. Quake trashed footbridge over waterway creek, Chimera Cres, post 23.12.11 quake swarm
09.01.12. Waterfowl in waterway, between Barkers Ln & Anzac Dr, post 23.12.11 quake swarm. Port Hills backdrop
Barkers Ln, main entrance to Kate Sheppard Retirement Village ghost: FLETCHER CONSTRUCTION sign behind locked gates, steel fenced, ghost houses, overgrown gardens, grey quakemire everywhere. Horizontal, concrete poles, trashed carpet heaps blocked lane end. Slimy flood water pooled New Brighton Rd.
09.01.12. Fletcher Construction sign on fence, red zone, Kate Sheppard Retirement Village, Barkers Ln. The village was serial quake trashed, 2010-2011
09.01.12. Feb 22 quake trashed, red zone, Kate Sheppard Retirement Village, Barkers Ln, post 23.12.11 quake swarm
Wooden jetty off muddy Barkers Ln went into the waterway. Waterfowl, including Canada geese, paddled by, better adapted to quakes than humans. Blue & white threat sign on the jetty said it all for red zone, Christchurch mud holes, dust bowls, sewaged rivers, waterways, swamps:
!
POLLUTED
WATER
PLEASE AVOID
CONTACT
09.01.12. POLLUTED WATER sign, waterway jetty, Barkers Ln, post 23.12.11 quake swarm
09.01.12. Feb 22 quake trashed housing, red zone, Kate Sheppard Retirement Village, Barkers Ln, post 23.12.11 quake swarm
09.01.12. Liquefaction flooded gate posts, red zone, Kate Sheppard Retirement Village, Barkers Ln / New Brighton Rd, post 23.12.11 quake swarm
New Brighton Rd, near Anzac Dr: More red zone, ghost houses, overgrown gardens.
09.01.12. Red zone, quake trashed pavement & housing, New Brighton Rd, between Barkers Ln & Waygreen Ave, post 23.12.11 quake swarm
Wed 11.01.12. Mayor Parker on TV said it was his Council's "duty of care" to kick out The Press columnist Joe Bennet from his Lyttelton home, due to rockfall danger, despite Bennet's contention that no big rocks had fallen on his home in the last 10 000 quakes, just one little rock in his garden. Pity Parker & his Council hadn't shown "duty of care" post 04.09.10 Darfield Quake & Boxing Day Quake, ensuring safety of lethal CBD bldgs. Parker & his Council had 5 months to do so before the Feb 22 Quake killed 185 people. Mayor Parker was thrilled that Lonely Planet guide touted Christchurch "exciting," despite quakes. Parker said tourists may like an aftershock to remember. Tell that to red zoners & families of Feb 22 Quake dead!
Thurs 12.01.12, 8.56pm, M4.6 quake, depth 15km, 20 km NE of Lyttelton (GeoNet). Rumbled by, shaking our Burnside home. Why did mayor Parker sell noxious aftershocks to tourists?
Sat 14.01.12. Drove red zone roads I'd trekked 6 days before. Council (or contractor?) had cleaned roads a bit, removing grey silt piles. Tons of silt stayed on muddy pavements & in gardens. Gritty silt, flew in the gusty wind. Ghost houses haunted the dust bowl. Waygreen Ave water leak was gone. Ghost roads reverted to swampland.
*Trekked New Brighton Rd, Waygreen Ave, Atlantis St, Chimera Cres, Barkers Ln. 237 snaps.
Coda:
By Nov 2013, most of the red zone, ghost houses I'd seen were demolished by CERA.
Content & pics Copyright Mark JS Esslemont.
See Chch one of NZ's 'most exciting cities' (The Press / Stuff Co).
See Marryatt: L'Oreal man 'Cause 'he's worth it' (The Press / Stuff Co).
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