Northern Reaches of the Southern Alps

This is in the South Island, crossing from West Coast through Arthur's Pass to the East Coast--Christchurch.  A vista around every bend...

Today we walked all over the central part of the Pacific Coast city of Christchurch.  They suffered a series of terrible earthquakes here in 2010 and 2011, and in a huge tragedy 185 people were killed as one building collapsed on them--it was a downtown office building, and it was in the middle of a working day.  Here is a monument to all those who lost their lives--it's called 185 Chairs.  The people of Christchurch maintain it, and every day on the anniversary of the building collapse they come here and paint all 185 chairs white again.  There's a poem called Grief posted in a shelter there, by our friend John O'Donohue...