Setting Inspiration: Post-Earthquake Christchurch

Time for another visit to New Zealand for our "setting inspirations" blog series. This time I want to talk about Christchurch, which we visited about 5 years after the 6.3 earthquake that devastated the city in early 2011. Even now, the city is struggling. Many have left and/or lost their livelihoods, the streets feel empty and abandoned at night, and there's been a huge increase in crime. The downtown is full of condemned buildings, cordoned-off areas, and empty lots. Rubble and graffiti can be found at every turn.

But there are beautiful things too. The city is putting a lot of effort into restoring historical buildings, and there's much in the way of monuments, sculptures, and murals to help raise money or remember the dead. You can still get a lovely boat ride in the canal or visit the huge gardens, and amid the gutted buildings are the sprouts of new life, such as the cardboard cathedral and the boxcar mall (see below).

This was one of the fist pictures I took, after we parked on the periphery and walked into the downtown. You can see what I saw as my first impression in the daylight. There are damaged and abandoned buildings everywhere.

When we got into town, this was our view while drinking coffee at a stand near the i-site:

And all through the streets, you can see torn-up office buildings, churches held together by spit and prayers, old hotels and university buildings leaning on crutches.

 

 

More visually striking, though less depressing, are the buildings that have already been demolished, leaving foundations and rubble in their place. Though I wasn't always sure which ones were under work, and which ones had simply collapsed during the earthquake.

This church is called the "dollhouse" church, because the front of it fell away, exposing the rooms within like a dollhouse. You can see a "before" photo in the shot:

And walking around a normal garden, sections that I guess they just haven't gotten around to fixing (that's right along a path, nothing special, nothing marked about it):

Like I said, there are good things, too. I've left a lot of things out, because I took a lot of pictures in Christchurch. The trolley cars, the gardens, the museums, the university, and more. One of the most interesting, unique, and inspiring areas of the city is the boxcar mall, in which boutiques, cafes, and other vendors set up in a long strip of boxcars. It's more charming than it sounds, very quirky and lively.

Also there's lots of artwork painted on the walls of buildings around the city (yes, the first one is penguins).

So, my thoughts on this as a setting. There are a lot of things you could take away from Christchurch. The terror of experiencing an earthquake (footage of it happening, including a building collapsing), the long-term economic and social impacts, the visual devastation and emptiness, the optimism of rebuilding.

For me as a visitor after the fact, two things stuck with me. One is how haunting and depressing the city felt. We arrived on a Friday night, and honestly couldn't find anywhere open to eat at 8pm near our hostel. There was no one on the streets outside of downtown. The weather was gray and miserable for much of our visit, adding an extra layer of gloom. It was sad, disturbing, and unsettling. The other thing that stood out to me is what I've tried to show here--the lingering ruin. Buildings barely kept alive with lifelines of scaffolding, gutted shops lining the streets, rubble as your view drinking coffee in the morning.

If we had been in the area around the time of the quake, there's also the constant fear of aftershocks. For months after, the shocks caused as much or more damage, and there's no knowing when one would hit, or how long it would last. The psychological dimension here is also huge.

I think a post-disaster city could make a very interesting setting for any type of plot. Something that still tickles me is a story I once critiqued, set on another planet, where the city had been devastated by an earthquake 5 years ago. The novel opened with the character, a city leader, looking out on the gleaming skyline of pristine high-rises from a city that had pulled itself up from the mud. A massive alien city, rebuilt to perfection, in 5 years. I still giggle at that (note, no super-rebuilder-technology was mentioned in that draft).

This post is part of a series focused around gorgeous or fascinating places that I think would make great settings for sci-fi and fantasy (or anything else!). It includes places I have used in writing, will use, or simply admire. 

I welcome submissions of your own photos or location suggestions. Anything breathtaking, haunting, unearthly, or otherwise memorable! Comment or tweet me and I'll try to make a post out of it.