A PLACE TO REMEMBER

It is seven years since the devastating Christchurch earthquake. As the city gradually recovers, Peta Stavelli meets Christchurch’s David Bolam-Smith whose tireless work bridging two cultures has created touchstones for grieving families.

Peta Stavelli

Driving around the ever-changing one-way system of Christchurch’s inner city you pass empty building sites full of rubble, bounded by link fences, and littered with signs: Keep Out. Building Site. Wrong Way. Dead End. It’s confusing and – yes – it is confronting. Knowing this, I’d set out early for my afternoon interview with David Bolam-Smith at the Transitional Cathedral. The route had been carefully mapped out, yet I was still diverted like a dodgem car down ever-changing one-way streets dotted with road cones. All too soon I was apparently lost. It was hot. I lamented the lack of familiar landmarks in a city that had been all but razed and was tempted to flag it away. Yet just at that instant I arrived at my destination and glided into…

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NZ Today (Digital) - 1 Issue, No 79 Apr-May 18

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