Sorrow and hope

We started our day in Christchurch with a Blipmeet. Blipbear, Gordon and I met Gingernan and mpp26, in a café in Hornby. A wonderful meeting it was too. Delightful people they are and we sat for a long time chatting and laughing.

Then we left them and set out for the city.

Two years ago, almost to the day, we were staying in Christchurch. We wandered the streets, visited the Arts Centre and Art Gallery and sat in the sun. A week or so later, and when we had just arrived back at Heathrow, we were looking at pictures of the devastation of the very places we had been. The earthquake of February 2011 had struck.

So it was with a little trepidation that we drove into the city centre today and began to explore. We found the rubble car parks that had once been buildings. We saw the emptiness of the centre and felt a quietness that shouldn't be in a city. We saw cranes and roadworks everywhere. But we also saw the Re:START centre with shops and cafes made of brightly painted shipping containers and lots of people enjoying a day in the sun.

So what to blip that would convey the emotional turmoil we went through as we walked the streets? Sadness through a picture of empty spaces and piles of rubble where buildings had been; tragedy through a picture of the beautiful cathedral torn apart; human tragedy through a picture of the empty white chairs commemorating those who died; joy through a picture of the beautiful gardens, blossoming as if nothing had happened; hope through a picture of the vibrant street of container buildings and people shopping eating, listening to music.

No, not one of those could convey everything we felt. So, I reverted to the first picture I took during our blipmeet. Two of the nicest people you could ever hope to meet told us with tears and laughter of the heartbreak and hope that they and their families and friends and communities had gone through. We learnt first hand what it was like and how they coped with sorrow, but with hope for the future. How in the end people have to just get on with life and do.

Look at their pictures and read their words in their journals, and those of other Christchurch blippers. They convey a lot more than I can in one visitor picture. And my blip is these two people, well known to a lot of you through their blips, maybe you now know them a little better, as we do.


And have you found Blipbear today . . . and his newly-acquired friend?