Remembrance

Today was the second anniversary of the Christchurch earthquake, and we marked it with flowers. Road cones and fences were decorated with blooms, and people created a river of flowers by casting blossoms into the Avon river at various points around the city. I walked to the river in the evening with my posy and looked around at the slowly decaying neighbourhood. A few houses are still inhabited, but far more are empty and sunken as they wait for the diggers and excavators to come. It is sad, but still beautiful, as the Avon river always has been and always will be. The land may be deemed unliveable, but people will still come and enjoy the peace and beauty.

The Medway St footbridge once crossed here, but it was rendered a twisted mass of steel after the quake. It has only recently been removed and I hear it is being stored at Ferrymead park until a suitable site can be found for it to be placed as a memorial. In the meantime a strip of red and black flags spans the river.

I cast my flowers into the river as a mark of respect and a symbol of how this city will bloom again.