Bank of New Zealand - Kaiapoi

It saddens me to be blipping this building - it is my favourite and has stood all the earthquakes since September 2010 with a little sag, a few broken windows but Friday 23 December 2011 has taken a toll. Its sagged even further, now with a tilt, the chimney is now broken along with more windows - its cordoned off for a reason, it was yellow stickered but the road in front is closed to traffic and pedestrians - it's probably going down.....

A little bit of history.....It was constructed in 1882 replacing a building from 1862. Then the BNZ was the only bank in Kaiapoi and the first building to be built out of brick and stone.
It was used in its original purpose until 1988 when the bank moved to another premises. Today this building is home to a private business.

The emblem above the door shows in the middle 2 grey kiwis surrounded by our native flax, cabbage tree and silver tree fern with white river stones. I have put a closer view of the emblem in my blipfolio - take a look its quite impressive and I believe the only BNZ building left in New Zealand with this emblem, might pay to go large in the blipfolio.

It would've been nice to have shown this with a lovely blue sky but I can't wait till then, it could be gone tomorrow. Where this building stands is on a corner of a roundabout. There were prominent buildings on all four corners this is the only one remaining and is now doomed - our history is disappearing fast before our very eyes - I'm saddened.....

The weeks gotta get better eh :)