It’s celebration time! We’re celebrating the weather (get outdoors and hike), the giving season (gift guides galore), and the absolutely outstanding city Christchurch has become. This issue, we’re looking back on a wild decade and looking forward to the events, happenings and wicked wee businesses opening up in Ōtautahi.
This summer, it’s the 10-year anniversary of the February 22 earthquake, and we’re taking a moment to reflect on a lot of the wild things that have happened in the decade since, including the Port Hills fires and the March 15 terrorist attack, and culminating with the 2020 pandemic. What we’ve noticed is the Christchurchians have banded together through these events and made our city stronger, more vibrant and diverse than ever.
We’re looking for the positives, and they aren’t hard to find. Christchurch is an ever-changing place with excellent eateries, theatres, access to nature and fantastic people. Just a few years ago, the city centre was a wildly different place from what we see now. There was very little choice in CBD eateries or bars. The walk to Re:START for a bing or souvlaki took us past dilapidated hotels, empty lots and construction sites – usually over road-coned footpaths next to bogged-down traffic or closed roads. What we have now is extraordinary and worthy of celebration: a vibrant core of businesses, international and creative food choices, buzzing bars, and artful public spaces that just keep getting better. In this issue we explore some of Ōtautahi’s milestones and stories from a decade of earthquake rebuild. We celebrate the city’s evolving culture, its abundant and diverse art, the people that have shaped and chronicled Christchurch’s recovery, and some of the places that make it truly special.
This issue also features some amazing artists, musicians, summer festivals, fashion news and Ōtautahi hospo establishments worth taking the time to explore.
