Not Your Typical Monday

February 6

This morning we went to the Canterbury Museum here in Christchurch.  This museum was so interesting. It had such a variety of things to see and learn about. The Museum is world renowned for its natural and human history collections and a frequently changing program of exhibitions and events complements the permanent displays.

Here are some of the highlights:

First, my favorite part of the entire museum was this section that had WOW fashion designs. The brand name was WOW. It is definitely the appropriate name for it. They were absolutely jaw dropping. Check these out for yourself and you be the judge!

Second, I also really liked looking at the Maori statues/masks. They all represent something different in the Maori culture. How cool looking are these? Not only are they absolutely huge but look at all of the detail! They are magnified Maori masterpieces.

Lastly, I loved to see an entire dedicated to hearts. This is a fairly new room that represents hearts for Christchurch after the devastating earthquakes. I thought it was quite touching to see all of the different hearts that were made to represent the hearts that went out to Christchurch. Hearts for Christchurch showcases an amazing array of more than 4,000 stitch-craft hearts from around the world. The project is the inspiration of Napier woman, Evie Harris, who started creating and gathering the hearts after the February earthquake. 

Word got out amongst the stitch-craft community about the project and soon hearts started arriving from all over New Zealand and the world. Find out more about the project on Evie’s blog: http://heartsforchristchurch.blogspot.co.nz/

Then we walked around the city center of Christchurch. Waking around this city you can really see the devastation that has hit this city. Around almost every corner the street was blocked off because the buildings were unsafe or in the process of being demolished. Take a look for yourself. 

As we were walking around exploring, we discovered that all of their stores, banks, and grocery stores had been evacuated as well, which makes sense we just didn't think about that. People still need and want to shop so what Christchurch did was use "containers" for their stores. I thought this was really strange but a cool concept as well.