Christchurch Daily Photo

Years ago, it was decided that the Ferrymead Bridge would not survive a large earthquake, so they hatched a plan to re-build it and work commenced. Then we had a major earthquake and another one, and then about 10,000 more earthquakes. The bridge still stood. But it was in bad condition underneath with large cracks. And so the bridge was demolished and two temporary bridges have been built for East and West travelling traffic.

They are now putting in the steel casings for the new bridge. These have to be driven down to the solid rock under the estuary – no mean feat, and apparently those living within a certain radius of the bridge may feel some vibration and hear some noise.

This is the road surface on the temporary bridge – you can see that the tar-seal has worn off. This is causing quite a bit of noise – it’s very noticeable when you walk over the bridge, and if you live within about 800 metres of the bridge the noise is like click clack click clack all day and night long. Around 40,000 vehicles use the bridge every day. Apparently, the engineers are trying to find a solution to fix the temporary bridges and cut down on the noise. Hopefully they will succeed and those of us living near by will have one less noise to contend with.

For those who want to know more about the rebuild have a look at the CCC information website about the bridge.

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For quite a few weeks, I have been driving past this wall in Ferrymead and thinking ‘I must stop and check that out’. Except, I am often on may way to somewhere or coming home from somewhere, so never do. Today, it got to 4.30pm and I had no photos, so I decided to finally find out what these photos were all about. I can actually see them from home, so my curiosity was piqued.

It turns out that these photo are part of the international art group Inside Out Project.

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After quite a period of activity along this stretch of the park I realised a lovely new path had been created. So to whoever was responsible, many thanks, as it’s a nice little path!

And here’s a view that I never tire off – those Port Hills with Castle Rock in the middle.

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One eyed monster graffiti on a wall in Ferrymead. Perhaps it’s an ‘earthquake monster’?

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A collection of my photos from my 4km return walk into Woolston from Ferrymead today. I went to the First Few Shops pop-up shipping container shops at the back of Cassels bar. These are the shops that will eventually go into The Tannery shopping arcade.

Along the way I saw lots of interesting things, including a very tame bunny rabbit on its own, a soft toy washed up on the banks of the Heathcote, and an R2D2 themed mail box. It certainly pays to be aware of your surroundings and to walk rather than drive. You just never know what you are going to see.

There’s some excellent reading to be had at Smith’s Books – a mixture of old and new.

The rabbit intrigued me. It was sitting under a park bench opposite The Brewery in Woolston and was not the least bit afraid of me. Very tame but kind of an odd place for a rabbit. I wonder now if he’d escaped from a back-yard somewhere.

Spotted this R2D2 mailbox in Woolston on the walk back

This soft toy dog was placed along the tow path walk near the water. At first we though it had been washed up there. But I’ve since learned that it was actually put there by someone who happens to follow the blog via Facebook. Such a small world we live in!

I really enjoy this walk and if you’ve not done it before I highly recommend it. You can find the start of the Tow Path by the Ferrymead Bridge. If you just keep following your nose and go under the bridge at the roundabout you can keep walking along paths all of the way up to Rutherford Street. Keen cyclists use this route as a way to avoid Ferry Road.

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