Tomorrow marks one year since the earth moved in Kaikōura. We’ve had a busy year managing the quake’s impact on native species and conservation areas. We reflect on the last 12 months.
Continue Reading...Archives For 30/11/1999
During the recent events this week, our thoughts are with the people of Kaikoura and everyone affected by Monday’s quake.
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Swinging below the crane, a wee cabin linked to Scott’s fatal Antarctic expedition looked more like a cubby than a 100-year-old piece of history.
“It looks like a child’s playhouse!” remarked its ‘owner’ Valerie Crichton.
DOC’s Murray Lane helps guide the hut as it’s lifted out of the spot where it has sat for the last 100 years
But as Grant Campbell, DOC Community Relations Programme Manager eloquently said, “We’ve lost so much heritage in Christchurch, even the wee ones count.”
The hut, which for the past 40 years has been under the care of the Crichton family in Sumner, has been pulled from the brink of an earthquake-crumbled cliff top after being vested with DOC.
It’s the culmination of lots of long talks and negotiations by Grant and Community Relations Ranger Cody Frewin with the Crichtons, Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority (CERA) and the Christchurch City Council.
Valerie Crichton said, “It’s taken more than two years to get traction on this. Then we met with DOC and it was ‘can do’. That ‘can do’ was music to our ears.”
The hut had to be lifted high around pitched garage roofs and powerlines
Cody said, “I’m really proud of what we have achieved.”
Grant, Cody and the Crichtons were all onsite to watch the cabin be retrieved and trucked to Godley Head by contractors HGM Construction. David Crichton pacing back and forth was reminiscent of an expectant father.
“I have mixed feelings about this event,” said David. “It would have been nice to stay here but this is the next best thing.”
The cabin began life as a meteorological hut taken to the Antarctic by the Terra Nova for Captain Scott in 1911. But it was brought back to Lyttelton in 1912, still in its wrapping.
The convoy makes its way through the narrow streets of Sumner before heading up the hill (you seen the road in the background)
It was erected on Clifton Hill above Sumner in the garden of the expedition agent, Sir Joseph Kinsey and was home to the wife of Captain Scott’s right hand-man Dr Edward Wilson, Oriana Wilson, for a year until she received the news of his death in February 1913. The hut was also known as ‘Uncle Bill’s Cabin’ after Dr Wilson, whose nickname was Bill.
David Crichton used the cabin as his study, and later it was a place of refuge after the September quake, when the couple felt nervous about sleeping in their own house. This fear was proved founded when the February quakes bought their house down, while the cabin rolled with the quakes like “a wee boat,” said Valerie.
In a press release, Minister of Conservation Hon Dr Nick Smith said, “I’d like to acknowledge the Crichton’s vision and generosity in gifting the hut, as well as the assistance provided by CERA and the Christchurch City Council in making the removal possible.”
The hut will sit on the old parade grounds on Godley Head temporarily until it’s restored and resource consents are sorted for its final resting place with a sea view
“For a building to have travelled so far and survived so much, it would have been a tragedy to have left it to be demolished.”
The hut has been taken to public conservation land at Godley Head where it will be restored and eventually opened to the public, in a spot with sea views as it was on Kinsey Terrace.
All is not lost – we are keeping some of Christchurch’s historic stone buildings! One of my favourite places to visit is the Sign of the Packhorse Hut and I was really happy to hear that it had survived the latest Christchurch earthquake.
Sign of the Packhorse Hut
It’s a beautiful old stone hut in a great location; perched on a saddle offering a grand view of Lyttelton Harbour below and the curve of the Port Hills sweeping around its edges.
Happy memories are attached to that place – my daughter’s first overnight stay in a hut aged only two! The friends we took with us who had also never been tramping before. The bottle of wine we hauled up the hill to drink with our pasta meal, celebrating a new year’s arrival as the sun set. Staying up all night as the kids played up and took turns to keep their parents awake, finally dropping off at dawn for an hour or two of sleep.
Happy memories – my daughter’s first overnight stay in a hut
Sign of the Packhorse Hut lost its chimney and suffered some cracks in the September 4 quake, but it seems to have held it all together OK this time. Its open again to walkers coming from Kaituna valley or Gebbies Pass, but the track to Mount Herbert is closed pending a geotechnical survey.
This historic nine-bunk stone hut was built as part of a planned series of rest houses by Harry Ell for a proposed summit route from Christchurch to Akaroa. Only four houses were ever built, all from locally quarried volcanic stone.
Making memories
Fort Jervois on Ripapa Island has also survived but has suffered some damage and remains closed for now.
Ōtamahua / Quail Island is safe and open again, another great place for families to go and have an adventure, forgetting about troubles for a while. Most of the reserves on Banks Peninsula are also now open, but reserves on the Port Hills stay closed due to the risks of rock fall. Godley Head too, is closed – all tracks and even the road is a risky place to be until rock hazards can be managed so stay clear.
While we keep getting large aftershocks, rock fall danger is very real, so please, keep safe and keep out of closed areas. Updates on track and facilities can be found on the DOC website.
But there’s nothing like getting back to nature to shake off the stresses of every day living – especially in a town that keeps trembling – so get out and about and make some memories of your own.
The Department of Conservation is back to business in Christchurch.
Yes things have changed since that fateful day Tuesday 22 February when the world bucked like a wild bronco at a rodeo show. We have no city visitor centre. Our inner city offices are cordoned off and will be for some time to come. Some of our tracks and special places are closed. Down town looks a bit like a new and alien world – as Captain Kirk said ‘It’s life Jim but not as we know it’.
Parking is no longer so great outside DOC's Kilmore Street office
Torrens House in the background appears fairly unscathed behind the rubble of neighbouring buildings – but it is off limits for at least six months
But we have picked ourselves up, dusted off our khaki pants and are ready to get back into it.
Want to know about our tracks and huts? Or perhaps get a hunting permit? You can check out the DOC website – we’re working to keep that right up-to-date. There’s even a special section on the earthquake.
Want to talk to us or ask a question? You can email us. You can ring the usual numbers – someone will answer. If you want to face up to a real person, you can call into our two closest area offices at 31 Nga Mahi Road, Sockburn or 32 River Road, Rangiora. The rangers at our two national park visitor centres in Arthur’s Pass and Aoraki / Mt Cook are very helpful and knowledgeable people too. Give them a call or visit – both are great places to get away from the stresses of the city – but not necessarily from quakes as they both sit on the Alpine Fault!
Things may not be quite as convenient or as fast as before – remember all our files are in a building that only guys in hard hats can enter. And while we are a government agency, we are people too, and we were all affected in many ways by the earthquake. Some of us lost homes. All of us are as tired and as stinky as the rest of Christchurch as we deal with aftershocks that disrupt our sleep and water supplies that are not quite back to normal.
My son, William Webb, outside his school in Heathcote – closed for three weeks while they cleaned up the rubble of those buildings that didn’t stand the test of 6.3.
But we believe in the value of conservation and we are back in business. Even if we have to do it in our own backyards.
