24th May 2011 Amberley to Christchurch 50 km

The ride to Christchurch was on the main state highway which was very busy.The first sign of earthquake damage was a bridge about 15 kms from the city which was closed to all traffic except pedestrians and cyclists,so we were able to avoid a detour.

We stayed at The Old Country House which is on Gloucester Street just east of the city where unknown to us was where the worst damage had occurred.There were collapsed houses all around us. We were really very surprised and saddened at how devestating the earthquakes were.We went for a ride around the central zone most of which is fenced off, and encountered street after street of broken roads and collapsed buildings.Icould not take pictures because I felt like an intruder at a terrible family tragedy.

The next day we thought that we would ride down the Avon River to the beach to perhaps see some more cheerful areas.It turned out that the river area and the beach area were the worst hit and it just got worse and worse as we went along.  We feel so sad for the people of Christchurch.

On the second morning there was a magnitude 4.3 tremor which shock the whole house that we were staying in at 6.00am.