Christchurch, New Zealand: from natural disaster to divine inspiration Residents of the city are determined not to despair. Clubs, restaurants and shops are re-emerging in unlikely locations; there are interesting fusions: cafés that double up as stores; a Lebanese restaurant that offers hairdressing. I got a sense of this creative energy during a recent visit when I wandered through the pop-up zone created in the previous commercial hub of Cashel Street and looked across the barriers at the cranes and bulldozers busy with the ongoing work of demolition in the "red zone," a formerly buzzing part of the city centre that is still out of bounds. Peering north, I caught a glimpse of the old Christchurch Cathedral - minus its vast spire and steeple. The scars of what happened last year are still very visible, and there are many in the city still displaced and uncertain about the future. People here have learnt more than they ever wanted to about earthquakes over the past few months: they are all too familiar with the term "liquefaction" (the emergence of a grey, foul-smelling substance that seeps through cracks in the ground); they avidly check their mobile phone apps for the latest information on tremors and quakes; more positively, they have become more community-minded - the disaster has brought them closer together. And there is undoubtedly a mood of excitement about the fact that, as in Napier in 1931, Christchurch now has the chance to start anew. A blueprint for the future is currently being drawn up. Aesthetically pleasing though it would be, Christchurch will not be going down the Art Deco route taken in Napier (see story left). But the aim is to create an environmentally sustainable, ecologically advanced city with lots of green spaces and low-rise, earthquake-resistant buildings. According to Kelly Stock of Christchurch and Canterbury Tourism, the destruction of so much provides an opportunity to create something genuinely bold. "This is a city that knows no boundaries; a city that doesn't know the word 'no'," she tells me as we stroll along the banks of the Avon enjoying the autumn sunshine. It will be interesting to see what emerges from the rubble.