Blue skies and big open spaces....

Amazing weather today, 20 degrees, hot and sunny , bizarre for winter but what we call a Nor'wester here in Canterbury. (great for drying the washing!)

I have had my usual day , but did go into town particularly to go for a walk in the city centre as it was so nice , hoping to get some good photos of the areas that have been opened up this week from the Red Zone, i.e, earthquake damaged and closed to the public for the last 2 3/4 years.

I got very hot doing this, was totally over-dressed!

Seriously though, wandering around taking the photos was quite strange, sort of sad mixed with spooky.
I had to turn around quite a few times and try to figure out just where I was , as there are so many big open spaces that take you time to remember what used to be there. Big landmark buildings are gone, and even though you think you would always remember a place it is amazing how confusing a couple of streets can be with just dirt and rubble to look at.

I wasn't the only one doing this, lots of inner city workers seem to be around now, and tourists , and with such a nice day people were walking around doing the same as me.

In this photo the lady in pink and I crossed paths quite a few times in the course of an hour of so!

I like this photo because the colourful street flags at least seem to be making an effort to brighten the place up.