Jan 5

Mommy had a free day this afternoon after classes were over.  She and Tanya teach their classes every morning (unless there is an all day field trip) then, if there are no afternoon trips scheduled for the class, we can usually head off to do something.  Her classes are finished shortly after 11:00, and then she usually has other stuff to do for work, handling trip logistics, responding to emails for a couple of hours.  Today we went to the grocery store again (I guess you have to go to the grocery store every day when you are in New Zealand) then we went into Christchurch and had lunch at the Dux de Lux.  It is a popular restaurant next to the Arts Centre in the center of town.  Then we strolled around and toured some of the shops in the Arts Centre and Mommy bought some really neat New Zealand childrens books for Miranda and I.  Daddy surveyed more earthquake damage around the city.  The Arts Centre did pretty well in the quake, but the main spire (looks like a church steeple) had to be removed via crane and placed on the sidewalk for repairs. Also, the decorative stonework has fallen down in many places, especially at the eaves and along roof lines.  City wide, there are lots of infrastructure repairs still taking place, fixing roads and repairing damaged underground pipes.  A lot of buildings are surrounded by scaffolding and there are entire building sites that are completely bare, most of the rubble is gone now and the city is well on the mend - but the damage is there if you know what to look for.  Lots of homes have damaged roofs where the chimneys fell and smashed the slate and tile roofs to bits.  Also, a number of buildings that survived the big quake in September but were damaged and had not been repaired yet had to be condemned and brought down after the Boxing Day (the day after Christmas) aftershock.