Tag Archives: Christchurch

Dec26

Pictures from the old Christchurch Stockyard

Posted on by
Standard

I had seen this building on the side of the road a few times, as I was driving to either Capoeira or the climbing gym.  It was nearly a ruins – walls without ceilings, and doorways and windows sitting open and bare of their glass.

I honestly didn’t know what it was, besides from the mostly-fallen down sign above the main entrance, but I knew that I wanted to explore it.  From the outside I could see small peeks of graffiti and artwork… and the fact that it was semi-blocked off by fencing and guard-rails didn’t make it any less inviting 🙂  Half the fun of exploring urban artwork is where its located, and the chance to do a bit of adventuring through ruins always piques my interest.

So that morning I packed up my satchel with some extra batteries and memory sticks, and headed into town.  I got a quick breakfast at a place called “Drexel’s”, mostly because it seemed to be named after the college that my little sister goes to.  I’ll admit that I was really impressed with it though… I’m used to the American grease-breakfast, and the pancakes that I ate here were perfectly fluffy and delicious – nearly as good as my Dads 🙂  The pile of Bacon was a nice little bonus too… a “helping” of Bacon at this place meant a plate full; literally 10+ slices.  By the time I left I could barely get onto my bike, though my belly was quite happy.

After the breakfast I headed right over to the ruins, that a friend of mine later told me used to be the Christchurch Stockyards, and started snapping up pictures.  So without further adieu –

Dec25

Living through the Earthquakes of Christchurch

Posted on by
Standard

Being in an Earthquake is… interesting. Its akin to being on a large ocean-going ship hitting a very choppy section, except significantly more violent. I’ve tried to describe exactly what its like, but trying to describe an earthquake is like trying to describe the feel of silk… its possible to give examples of things sort of like it, but they really don’t do the experience justice.

On the 23rd of December, in 2011, I was working at a Liquor store in Hornby, a suburb of Christchurch in New Zealand’s South island. That day we were hit with three major quakes, and uncountable smaller aftershocks. The first quake hit right before 14:00, registering in at a legitimate 5.8, which was followed about half an hour later by a smaller 5.3, and lastly capped out by a 6.0 that hit around 15:00.

Now, the first thing that people should know about earthquakes is that the richter scale is Exponential. That means that a 5.8 is MUCH stronger than a 5.3, and a 6.0 is nearly 5 times more powerful than a 5.8. That, and the magnitudes only take into account the energy release at the point of origin; meaning that a closer quake will feel more powerful than a farther out quake, and the duration of the quake is not taken into account here.

The first quake knocked a few bottles off of the shelves, but it was honestly more of a “ohh. THAT’s what a real quake feels like!” situation. I was in the middle of hauling a stack of vodka’s out to the shop, and I honestly just thought that someone was opening the bay door behind me… until I saw the lights shaking and heard the bottles rattling. The first quake (the 5.8) shook us for nearly 20s, and it built up from a light rumble to an earth-shaking roar; I seriously felt like I was a doll inside a tiny house, being thrown around by a giant. But before I could really process what was happening… it was over. And we went about cleaning up the store, calming down customers, and assessing the damage.

The second quake (the 5.3) was only a few seconds long, and was much less violent; I honestly barely even registered it, thanks to the adrenaline still running through my system from the first quake. The real effect of Earthquakes revealed itself to me during this smaller shake though – the psychological trauma that earthquakes cause. As soon as I felt the ground starting to shake, I remembered the effects of the first quake, and started imagining how much worse it could get. Thankfully, years of rock climbing have given me a rather implacable calm when it comes to emergency situations, since freaking out on the rock can literally kill you, so I was able to ride the second quake out without much trouble… but I seriously question what sort of affect repeated earthquakes will have on my psyche.

The third quake was the biggest, and it was by far the most violent and hair-raising. It was a 6.0, but the major difference from the other two was that it originated much closer, a mere 5km (~2.2miles) from where we were. Thus, instead of starting low and building, it hit with the shock of a car-crash, and tapered off from there. That’s honestly the best way I could describe it… imagine being in a car thats smashed off the road by an 18-wheeler… but you’re completely safe from any impact. You just feel the world moving and being thrown around, but nothing is hitting you (unless you’re unfortunate enough to be in the way of projectiles… thankfully I was not). The effect of this quake was much worse than the previous two, both physically and mentally. In the liquor shop we lost entire stacks of beer, and dozens of bottles of spirits. But during the quake, our minds reached back to the previous quakes, where they had gotten stronger as they went on. Note: THEY GOT STRONGER. Here, we started with a hit like a mack-truck… now imagine that you expect that to get worse… it would have been equivalent to the Quake earlier in the year that had killed hundreds of people and leveled the center of Christchurch.

That, in itself, is what scares me about earthquakes, and what causes people so much trouble – the uncertainty of when it will hit, and how bad it will be. You never even know how long it will last, and its impossible to tell when a mere aftershock will turn into a full-blown quake, or if “the big one” will hit with no notice what-so-ever.

Its a scary thought, and scarier to live through the daily aftershocks (Ed note: Since these quakes, there have been dozens of noticeable aftershocks, 3.0 and above, every day.) But New Zealand is an amazing country, Christchurch an amazing city, and the countryside very much worth the danger. In my opinion its just another natural disaster… though one that leave a bit more of a psychological scar than blizzards or hurricanes, since its nearly unpredictable.

Nov30

Climbing in Christchurch – Roxx and the Rec Center at UC

Posted on by
Standard

Nov 23rd and 24th

New Zealand has some amazing outdoor climbing, but unfortunately sometimes you don’t have the time to drive out to it. Or it could be raining… and when New Zealand rains, it makes sure that you are aware of the rain; what people in Mass refer to as “rain” New Zealanders call “light drizzle”, and “New Zealand rain” is better known as “having a fire-hose turned on you”. Seriously, its nuts. But when it is raining or you’re feeling too lazy to drive a few hours, there are always climbing gyms.

This is starting to become a theme I’m noticing… reviews of rock climbing gyms. But honestly, a climbing gym can be a really great place or a really depressing place, and finding the right gym can be almost as relieving as coming home after a long business trip abroad. In a good gym the routes are challenging but fair, the people are friendly but not creepy, and the atmosphere is laid back yet energizing. I’ve been to gyms that feel more like the weight room of a frat house or a center for road rage. But I’ve also been to gyms where everyone chats and helps push each other to greater feats of awesome, yet never insults or demeans people. A good gym can be a climbers second home… and oftentimes it really is (after the real rock walls, or course).

So when Mike came up on my third day in New Zealand and asked if I wanted to hit the climbing gym with him that night, I jumped on it. We headed to a place called “The Roxx”, which Mike told me was his favorite gym, and when we got there… dang but I was blown away. They had your normal bouldering cave and “fake-rock” walls, but they also had fully textured rock faces with features and cracks galore. In case you’ve never been to a climbing gym; most gyms have flat angled walls with climbing holds screwed onto the walls. Some (very few) gyms have “features” on their walls which mimic real outdoor rock by giving you small cracks and divots to hold on to while you’re climbing. The downside to using features is that its much harder to set up initially, and they can’t be changed around to make new routes… But in my opinion their definitely key, since it gives a much more accurate representation of climbing outside.

Roxx had entire walls made up of these features, showing off deep cracks, wide splits, and beautiful ledges that were crafted out of plaster-covered plywood and sculpted from rock-paste. Seriously, this gym had the best walls and features out of any indoor climbing I’ve ever been to, and I loved every minute of climbing up them. The “features only” climbs were mostly hard (rated 19+ on the New Zealand scale, so mostly 5.10b+), so I had a good tough time on the few that I could actually finish; and I left with more than a few new projects.

 

Unique note: The University of Canterbury doesn’t have an “Outdoorsing club” like Northeastern does. Instead, they have many smaller clubs that cater to the specific activities that make up outdoors adventures, such as a Tramping (hiking) club, a climbing club, a Kayaking club, etc… Kinda a bad idea in my opinion, since it makes it harder to negotiate with the university and to organize huge fun trips, but it seems to work well enough for UC, so good deal.

The next evening Mike and I decided that being tired and sore from one night of climbing wasn’t nearly enough, and headed to the University of Canterbury Rec center to check out the rock wall there. I was able to get in for free since the climbing club was having its weekly meeting and so we headed in, strapped on the shoes, and started trying out problems with the few climbers from the club who had come out. The vibe that we all had going on was actually something I haven’t run into in a while, and it was really refreshing to have a whole group of boulderers climbing and helping each other out with the harder moves.

Instead of just working routes though, I had a really fun time setting as well. Since the wall was rather small there weren’t many truly set routes, and there were even fewer routes that were taped – most of the actual “routes” were found by word-of-mouth or made up on the spot. After working a particularly reachy problem with some of the burlier guys I decided that I wanted one of my personal favorite bouldering routes and started picking out holds to build up an over-hanging and dynamic jug-fest. Everyone started coming over a trying it once I set it up though, and soon enough we had all eight of us taking turns trying to make the final few moves up to the top. It was really fun, and a really nice little ego boost to have everyone loving the route that I put up.

We climbed strong for a while, but soon enough we hit the 10:00 mark when the rec center started closing down. We packed up our gear, grabbed some extra rope and draws from the climbing clubs gear locker (talk about a blast of memory…) and jumped in the car to head home. A good day of climbing, and I’m really looking forward to hunting down the UC Climbing Club again soon.