My Christchurch - Laurel Smith

Christchurch continues to stand strong and recover after the 22 February earthquake. For ways in which you can help, visit The Red Cross New Zealand website.


I was sitting at my computer in my little apartment in Wellington when the earthquake hit Christchurch. I had absolutely no idea. My boyfriend sent me a text and asked me to check on his family. It struck me as a strange request. So I called him and he told me in one breath that another earthquake had hit Christchurch and that this time it was bad. In the September quake we were 'lucky' - early morning, people at home, barely anyone in the central city. But this quake was in the middle of the day.

Christchurch is a special city for me. It is my refuge. I felt like something had been ripped from me. I let the news coverage wash over me. I ached for the people who were having to live through this tragedy. I prayed for my family and friends. I shook as I couldn't get hold of loved ones, not even realising that I was holding my breath.

I don't live there and haven't since I was a child. But my boyfriend's family (my surrogate family) does and in the ten years that we have been together, we have spent numerous days and weeks in the Garden City. It was the place in which I think we really fell in love. It was the place that we went to when we needed to escape our daily lives.

It holds so many memories. Walking through the square eating souvlaki, dinner at the Octagon listening to old Edith Piaf covers, op shop missions through the city, hours spent perusing vintage clothing at Tete a Tete and Two Squirrels, Christmas holidays, birthdays, anniversaries. It is the last place where I can remember a good day with my mother (we have a tumultuous relationship). We spent hours in streets that now resemble a war zone.

So many lives lost, so many beautiful buildings destroyed. My boyfriend's mother was here briefly on the weekend and she has hardly slept since it happened. She said that she can never explain the way that it feels to have the earth move like that beneath you. The very foundations of their lives have been shaken.

My Christchurch is family. And I want to help it feel safe again.

Laurel is a vintage seller living in Wellington. She blogs about her thrifting adventures and vintage finds at Ooh La La Vintage.

Two brave squirrels

Christchurch continues to stand strong and recover after the 22 February earthquake. For ways in which you can help, visit The Red Cross New Zealand website.

Tete a Tete Vintage and Two Squirrels were the two best vintage stores in Christchurch. My two favourite places in Christchurch, actually. I first met Vanessa, the owner, when a friend (Hannah!) told me about a sale Tete a Tete was having - in 2008, I think. Armed with my little Post-it note of directions, I stumbled up the narrow stairs and found a room full of dresses, and full of girls fighting over these dresses. The one spot of calm was Vanessa, behind the desk, who had a smile for everyone, and wrapped up their purchases (their treasures, she called them) with great care. After that, I was addicted. When I had finished my work for the day (this was the year during which I wrote The Cry of the Go-Away Bird) I walked from our flat in Merivale across Hagley Park and into the central city, where I would go thrifting and stop in to see Vanessa and Warren and their Aladdin's Caves of vintage. I went there whenever I was having a bad day, and just touching the fabrics and rummaging through the boxes of buttons and scraps of lace would make me happy again. We became friends.

Vanessa and Warren gave joy to so many people. Everyone who has ever met them remembers them with affection. They have that magic something that, if they were in a Disney film, would make bluebirds fly to their hands and people burst into miraculously harmonising song.






Two Squirrels in happier times.

There is so much to admire about Vanessa and Warren, apart from their impeccable style and taste in antiques and vintage. They built a business from nothing, and they did it with kindness and grace. They are two of the nicest people I have ever met. It is just so heartbreaking to see their hard work in ruins. I am hugely grateful, though, that the two of them are unscathed. As soon as I heard about the earthquake (that horrible 3am call) and had called my mum, I thought of them - based in the central city, where the damage was worst. They were in the thick of it, and saw some horrible things, but they are physically unharmed.



Tete a Tete and the surrounding buildings after the 22 February quake.

Post-quake, Two Squirrels in Cashel Mall has been yellow-stickered, which means limited access is allowed depending on the state of the surrounding buildings. Tete a Tete on Hereford St has been red-stickered, which means no access. But the building is still standing (although the surrounding buildings have fallen) and Vanessa and Warren believe the owner will want to keep it that way.





The always stylish and inspiring Vanessa.

Vanessa and Warren sitting in the back room of Two Squirrels. Image taken for Frankie's special-edition Spaces magazine.

I know that, if anyone is going to recover from the earthquake with grace and an indomitable spirit, it is going to be these two. I miss them both hugely.

Vanessa has a wonderful blog filled with inspiring images - go and say hello! You'll be glad you did.

My Christchurch - Nadine Kats

Christchurch continues to stand strong and recover after the 22 February earthquake. For ways in which you can help, visit The Red Cross New Zealand website.


Today at 12:51pm, the Kiwi flags which were flying at half mast have been raised. It was a sign of the courage and strength of Cantabrians, a sign of looking the bastard in the face and standing tall, a sign of dealing with it.

Mum called from Germany and told me to get on the next plane and take everyone with me, but that's not dealing with it. I wasn't born here, I'm not even a Kiwi, but I chose Christchurch as my adopted hometown and I’d choose it again. Any time. For me, dealing with the earthquake means remembering what I love about this beautiful city as I learn to keep my balance with every new aftershock.

I love the beautifully corny punters on the Avon river. The Kiwi accent adopted even by foreigners. The Jaffas and smiles I get with my coffee. My partner, a born-and-bred Christchurch man who lost a part of his past, but is determined to stay because this is home. The view over the grazing cows and the city beyond from our half-finished house. The scent of log fires in winter. The strange bird in our garden that shrieks and swears at every single aftershock and somehow makes me feel we’re not alone in this. The smiling man who empties the Portaloos. The ‘Rise Up Christchurch’ sign on one of the wonky fences. The inevitability of communally getting grumpy when the Nor’wester is blowing over the Southern Alps. The Facebook group for Mayor Bob Parker's orange jacket. The togetherness that persists while shovelling silt. The ever-changing trees of the Garden City. The oversized menus at Café Valentino. The sheep on the road in West Melton.

Yes, the roads are bumpy with liquefaction now, and last time I saw Café Valentino was in the rubble on the news, but the trees are still there. And they'll glow in the most beautiful autumn colours soon. And their auburn and golden leaves will fly, almost as high as the raised New Zealand flag.

After working for a German magazine and studying creative writing in London, Nadine fell in love with a Kiwi, then with Christchurch and shortly after with the whole of New Zealand. She is currently a sub-editor and writer (yes, her Christchurch office building survived), and she's busy working on her first novel, among other projects.