The Church in Christchurch

We chose our Christchurch apartment because it was relatively close to the train station, but in retrospect, it wasn’t a great location. Walking there felt like walking through the suburbs of Sacramento—flat grid streets lined with low ranch-style houses interspersed with strip malls—not the greatest introduction to the city.

We were on the other side of Hagley Park from downtown Christchurch, which was too far to walk, so we took the city bus, which dropped us off at the cleanest, most immaculate bus terminal either of us has ever seen.

We took our usual stroll through the city, heading to Cathedral Square to see the progress being made on Christ Church since the 2010 earthquake devastated the city.

It was a Sunday, the final day of a weeks-long festival that featured street performers, a market, rides and other activities, and the streets and cafes were full of people enjoying the very warm, sunny day (the Picton Ferry aside, we have been incredibly fortunate with our weather) giving the whole city a festive atmosphere, though in a very low-key, laid back NZ way.

We walked along the Avon River that cuts through the city…

…to the temporary home of the Auckland Museum, where we chatted for a good while with the receptionist and visited the very small exhibitions, including an excellent one on contemporary Māori art and the Māori relationship with the bird life of NZ.

The collection is very eclectic and whimsical—we saw a coal stove made to look like a medieval knight’s armor, a championship motorcycle that had been gold plated inside and out at a cost of half a million US dollars, bits of memorabilia from the Scott and Amundsen expeditions to the South Pole, a piece of meteor that fell in the Arizona desert and a bunch of random taxidermized animals among the usual collection of Māori artifacts and NZ historical memorabilia.

We also hit the very enjoyable Riverside Market, where we bought some fish for dinner and found a bakery counter that sold all sorts of GF goodies, which of course we sampled.

The highlight of the day, though, was the Cardboard Cathedral- the temporary worship space for Christchurch while the earthquake damaged cathedral is being rebuilt.

It was designed by a Japanese architect who specialises in quick temporary buildings after earthquakes, and it is a marvel of engineering, design and aesthetics. Though it is an interesting A-frame shape from the outside, with a stained-glass like façade, nothing prepares you for the play of light and space that you encounter within.

Everything from the ceiling to the pulpit and choirstalls is constructed at least partially from heavy cardboard tubes-kind of like giant wrapping paper tubes. It’s incredibly inventive and innovative, and it definitely has a Japanese feel to it.

It reminded me very much of the Arctic Cathedral in Tromso, Norway and inspired, on a much smaller scale, the same awe as entering Sagrada Familia for the first time.

Although it was built as a temporary space, we learned that it will not be torn down, but given over to another congregation when Christ Church moves back to the main Cathedral. It seemed quite appropriate, considering the name of this city that this lovely church in Christchurch was the high point of our visit to the city.