Discarded

My after work errands included braving the down wind edge of the broken CBD to buy my coffee.

On a spectrum it was more towards the scene-from-an-apocalyptic-movie end of things. The usual damage, cleared sites with remnants of rubble interspersed with people and businesses going about their daily lives AND the wind. Boy was it windy.

Down wind of the deconstruction/demolition of the CBD in a howling nor'westerly is a dusty and gritty experience. I feel for people further east contending with a mix of city dust carried on the wind and fine clouds of dried liquifaction in their streets and properties.

Where I am is almost normal in parts (but not all) of Christchurch. A large (or in this case huge) space of land, mostly cleared but the odd stretch of rubble and lump of masonry, discarded bits of heavy machinery, beaten up bits of damaged shipping containers, unrecognisable twisted metal and the ubiquitous rubbish skip. Heaven if you have a camera and can get near it.

As luck would have it the gates were open and before me stretched hectares of wasteland. Check point Charlie is just up the road (the start of the cordon to the red zone) and I expected I'd liven up the day or either a security guard or someone from the army. But no one in army fatigues or a high viz vest yelled and ran towards me. I'm almost disappointed ;-)

I only took a few photos. The air was thick with dust and grit and I was being pelted with whatever the wind was whipping up. It was like being on a beach on a windy day only there was no windsurfer to rig and ride to make it fun.

So there you have it, a forgotten piece of heavy earthmoving equipment, a munted bit of shipping container and a rubbish skip. All set in long grass and rubble with low warehouse buildings in the background where people continue to work.

Amazing really.