Christchurch, South Island, New Zealand

It was in February 2011 that Christchurch was struck by a devastating earthquake; a year later we drove through this city on its earthquake anniversary.  It was heartbreaking to find that Mother Nature practically leveled Christchurch’s historic downtown district.  From our pictures, you can see that most of the roads were barricaded due to the demolition work that was going on.  I was glad to see a little ray of light in that the city’s lovely botanic gardens were still intact.