Waianakarua Memorial Hall

Today was the day that we returned to Christchurch for the first time since the 23rd of February, the day after the Earthquake. We needed to get some clothes and other personal items. When we got back to the flat it looked like a bomb had hit it and I guess in someways it had. The kitchen is particularly bad state but its only things and they can all be replaced. I intended to Blip a photo of something in Christchurch from inside the cordon today but it seemed to be wrong, its time for the city to move on not look back at the disaster that has occured. The only thing to look back on is the poor people that have passed away as a result of the quake.

Anyway......Ive passed this building hundreds of times on the road from Dunedin to Christchurch and always admired it so stopped on the way home today. There are memorial halls and monuments all over NZ for those lost in the 2 World Wars. You are not a community in NZ without one.....

It got me thinking........

This country is in grief over the loss of life in Christchurch and quite right as well, but the ratio of lost compared with the loss in the Wars is minimal I just cant imagine what it must have been like for people back then to find out that more of there countryman had perished in foreign fields each day. The telegram they received really no reward for a family member lost.

I think I will look differently at these memorials in the future.

P.S. A local photographic identity in Christchurch, Stephen Wright, was lost in the quake my thoughs go out to his family and friends he will be missed greatly. RIP Stephen.