Day 13, Christchurch, tanks and red zones
My plan for the day was to try and drive a tank that I had
booked for the morning several months back. I had seen this tour last time I
was in New Zealand while in Christchurch. This was something I wanted to do
especially being a nice day for it. I was waiting for a bus to turn up and
instead a car did. There was a reason for this, since they were a driver down
so a family member was recruited to drop me off and pick me up. This was what I
thought was pretty cool and unexpected. At least I had been picked up and that
was something I was worried about.
When I arrived at the tank place, I had to sign a waiver
that people usually do in case of accidents. I was then taken through the different
vehicles that were on the site. They were all British made except for the T-55
Russian tank that was made during the Cold War. It had been pointed out that
some of the vehicles were actually still in active service even though they
were made around the 1960s. The Tank was actually from Australia and had seen
service in Vietnam and there was an Australian who owned several of these tanks
along with Parts. One of the personnel carriers had been in Ireland and the
Irish had learnt to aim at the windows with bricks as they could fit perfectly.
The T-55 was from Hungary and could have been involved with the Hungarian uprising.
I could sit in all these vehicles and found they were expensive to run both in
parts and fuel. The T-55 was actually ran pretty well, although it was cramped
for a full crew with no regards for comfort. I was allowed to adjust the main
guns on the british tank, which was actually a really good workout winding it
up and down.
The T-55 tank had to be jump started with one of the other vehicles
with a tow line and then I was off. The tank did not have a steering wheel at
all and if you have twin props on a boat then you steered with two leavers, a
clutch and a really hard gear stick. I had no problems going around the track
and had one of the guys sitting beside me on top of the tank telling me where
to go. It was very loud so I could barely hear what he was saying. I was loving
it and then it was finished, but I did get to reverse a tank back into position
in the parking spot. I was told, I drove like a man possessed and I could have
looked like that too. Sadly it was time for me to go back to the city. The dude
who drove the car told me that he was able to fire AK-47s in Cambodia with the
choice of using an RPG. An extra several hundred bucks was they could shoot a
cow. Waste of a perfectly good cow.
After lunch, I went back into town to book my trip for the
red zone tour, which took you into the fenced off area of central Christchurch.
I thought it would be good to know about the past, present and future of the
city. I was able to make my booking at the tourist information centre and then
wait for the bus to turn up. I did have to sign my life away in case of an
accident or even another earthquake. I did find out that there had been many
changes within the city and many buildings had been torn down already and did
take time to pull apart, which means the fences in the red zone shrinks. It is
now only a 1km stretch of area and some buildings did survive along with
several of the older buildings. They did speak of liquidfication with smelly soft
stuff that brewed out of the ground that had to be removed. The spaces have a
program where some are being are being converted into productive areas like the
soccer field I seen the day before or in another place a book exchange. There
was something else that had been done in another area where was chairs laid out
for the number of people who had died. I did find out what happened to the
statue of Robert Falcon Scott and that was he had been damaged in the second
quake with a broken arm and other damage. He will be standing out front of the
museum for an exhibition at the end of the month. The tours were very
respectful about the area and were run through the Canterbury museum. They did
speak of the people who came to help clear the buildings and other stories of
the earthquake like one man had always taken his climbing gear with him to work
and was actually needed that day.
I wandered around looking for a local cemetery that is in
the area and was damaged by the last quake. I had been completely turned around
and was unsure where I was supposed to be. I found a local library, which is
one of the replacements for the old library in central city that was damaged.
The national archives was actually in the same street as the new library. I can
check this out in the morning. The cemetery I was looking for was in Barbados
street and was easy to find once I realised what was where and that I had
passed a bridge. I decided that after a short walk that I better head back to
the hostel and find food on the way back. It seems that the food joints are not
that close to where I am staying and I do not know the area that well. I found
a pub and then took off back before it started raining.
No comments:
Post a Comment