Time: 1 hour and 45 minutes
Distance: 5.2 km
Start: Corner Avonside Drive and Gloucester Street
On February 22nd 2011, a magnitude 6.1 earthquake shook Ōtautahi Christchurch city and changed our lives forever. During the shaking (while I hid under my desk and feared for my children) pockets of land near the Ōtakaro Avon River liquified, with mud and water swirling up in places. Sinkholes - some as big as cars - appeared in unexpected places and houses groaned and cracked.
Over the following years, about 8000 properties were eventually "red-zoned". Many damaged, some beyond repair - but some completely unscathed. Nevertheless, the houses were moved or demolished, owners were mostly monetarily compensated and required to live elsewhere.
These days the Residential Red Zone is a government owned, semi-wild green belt through the city. But former garden boundaries can still be discerned and people still return to nostalgically visit their former patch. In particular, foragers visit the fruit trees at the end of summer - and that was our mission today. Get fruit.
The council have created a Fruit and Nut Tree Map of the city and it was useful to identify a suitable loop on the Ōtakaro - a good fruity spot to start our search. We parked near the Dallington Street Bridge and headed towards town - unsure really what to expect. We followed the river path and turned off at Morris Street where there is a wheelchair shaped memorial seat, a tribute to John Taylor, a paraplegic who stayed on in the red zone after everyone else left. After his death in 2017 the house was finally removed. The street signs are still there but the roads are starting to disappear under a plethora of potholes and weeds. It is amazing (and heartening) how nature takes over (Chernobyl springs to mind). Carolien is a red-zoner and, as we walked, she reminisced about the beautiful sunsets over the estuary.
We bumped into a local who told us where the nearest fruit trees were. A short off-piste trip across the field. White and black peaches, apples and pears. We shook trees and sampled the fruits - the low hanging ones were a bit unripe but we munched away happily.
We continued on through the wet grass, stopped for sour grapes and then continued to meet up with the river path again. Further along we crossed the Swanns Road bridge, and then headed back east along the other side.
We checked out the Richmond Community Garden and the Fungi Farm and Mushroom Foraging Area (only two mushrooms to be seen). Then ambled our way back to Dallington Bridge and the cars.
To mark a very significant occasion (Nicole's birthday), Sharyn had booked us a table at Under The Red Verandah Cafe which has a super pleasant outdoor area. The original building, a 100 year old villa, was damaged beyond repair during the earthquake. The owners salvaged what they could and rebuilt the current place.
We sat at a table under a shrivelled nectarine tree drinking coffees and hot chocolates. Fruity smells wafted out of our bags and we were lucky enough to have a bird shit on us. Very auspicious and ever such good luck - especially since our muffins escaped damage.
