This Saturday was the first time in a very long time – or probably the very first time – that I ditched the mountains and chose to stay in the city. On a long weekend!
Why? Because for once (or again?) there were too many cool things happening in town that I didn’t want to miss out on! So, thanks Christchurch for putting on a show! :-)
It’s is also thanks to the Festival of Transitional Architecture 2016 (FESTA), but more on that later.
If I stay in town, my day starts at the Christchurch Farmer’s Market. Today, we (yes – I managed to drag my poor engineering student along) indulged in Cakes By Anna first (What else?). We picked Lemon & Gin and Raspberry-Chocolate….yummy as usual.
Followed by a homemade gourmet sausage roll for the poor man and a Bacon Brothers buttie for me after an exact wait of 22.5 minutes. I am so gutted to miss the opening of the Bacon Brothers Burger Bar later this year.
We also managed to squeeze in a freaking delicious detox smoothie (beetroot & ginger) and an Acai Bowl from Greenroots Organics. A blend of blueberries and peanut butter topped with fruit, almonds, coconut and cacao nibs. Amazing!
Thank goodness I only go to a market once a week…
After all this goodness I (the poor man needed to go back to study) made my way into the city for my first FESTA event: the Greening the Rubble tour. A 2hour walk through the city – which is changing and developing at such a rapid rate it’s hard to keep up – showcasing beautiful temporary gardens and art spaces in spots that would otherwise be full rubble and dust from the earthquakes. Actually very fitting for the Garden City. All of these are run by a dedicated team of three part-time gardening wizards and a bunch of volunteers.
It all started at the Green Lab at the corner of Cranmer Square and Chesterfield Street. A pretty we spot bursting with flowers and native plants and a wee garden. Some in rather ingenious arrangements. All constructed from materials that were already there or would have gone to landfill otherwise.
We started our walk towards The Commons strolling past an amazing new mural on the corner of Durham Street. On a massive concrete wall a street artist created this picture of a seal…it’s belly full of plastic junk. A stark image and strong illustration of what is happening to our maritime animals right now if we keep on throwing our stuff ‘away’. The ‘away’ place is not just the landfill…Stuff ends up in the oceans too. To the great disadvantage for all the inhabitants that live in it.
At The Commons – a space brought to life an maintained by GapFiller – I stumbled upon this cute artwork below. Naturally I suspected this to be from some sort of local artist, but no. Reading the information panel I found out that this was actually put together by the Cashmere Primary School! How cool is that! Have kids make vacant spaces across the city look pretty and have them create awesome things like that. Seriously a cool thing to do.
Further on we came across the Sound Garden – a random collection of ‘instruments’ build from rubble. Other sites included another pretty garden trying to incorporate Maori structures and themes…
While we walked on to the Tree Museum, someone came up to me saying: “hey, are these shoes you are wearing the Allbirds?”. For me, this is very strange, because normally random people never ask me about the clothes I’m wearing.
I said: “Yup, they sure are”. He says – “I didn’t really want to buy them from just seeing pictures online, it’s always a bit risky”. I have to admit that I thought the same as I usually want to try on a shoe before I buy . The big BUT in this case though, was that the Allbirds shoes are made from merino wool and were being reviewed as the most comfortable shoe on the planet (https://www.allbirds.co.nz/).
Being the merino lover that I am I simply couldn’t say no. I had to have them. So I responded eventually, saying -“those are the most comfortable shoes I’ve ever owned, totally worth it. You should get them”.
Shortly after that he saw that I was wearing my TEDx Christchurch shoulder bag and asked me if that was an event he should go to.
“Hell, yeah” was my simple answer to that.
By that time we had reached the Cathedral Square admiring another temporary set up – letting native plants and bushes grow happily and wild. The stroll ended with the Tree Hill, a wee arrangement with three young cherry saplings that will hopefully grow into gorgeous trees in a few years, and the comfy pods outside the Re:start mall made out of rebar.
We wandered back to the Green Lab for some afternoon tea (free, by the way) and mini pancakes. The guy asking me about the shoes said to me:”You’ve inspired me now to get these shoes”. Wooot, that feels so good, yay :-) I hope he likes them as much as I like mine.
I passed the time rediscovering the city on foot for a while until I ended up at the art gallery for the FESTA 2016 headline event: Lean Means. Numerous art and architecture schools from around New Zealand and Australia transformed many of the vacant lots around the museum into temporary art spaces. All created from materials that are normally considered as waste – milk crates, carpet rolls, seed bags, plastic bags and much more. Goes to show that cool things can be created from such materials!
There were also A LOT of food stalls. My favourite food truck but also Kettle Corn New Zealand. And oh my they make really mean salted caramel popcorn! Yum.
One of the installations that utilised supermarked plastic bags had a rather sad statistic to proclaim:
A dreadful statistic. It is very much in line with the mural of the seal above…Which was a re-affirmation for me to keep on refusing plastic bags whenever I go shopping and always bring my own bag. It also actually made me sign a petition to ban single use plastic bags in New Zealand. Thankfully, it seems to be going well for the campaigners. The issue has been referred to a subcommittee of the Christchurch City Council. A step into the right direction.
It was an evening of fun, great food, good music and some dancing on the streets too – with an educative vibe to it! Absolutely love events like that.
It’s so good to see life creep back into the city and I’m very happy to be part of it :-)
Keep it up Christchurch, you are doing so well!
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