As someone says, quakeopoly..... and as usual, there is some humour to be found in this Zone Guide.
And then there is the more serious side... as people in these zones try to fathom what on earth this is going to mean to their futures, here, or elsewhere.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/opinion/columnists/5195541/Dreamtime-fuels-old-timer-as-he-survives-life-in-the-the-freezer
Orange, red, white and green - in the good old days they were simply colours or Cluedo characters.
Now they have become statements about people's lives. When I hear people, myself included, ask others, "What colour are you?" it sounds impolite, discriminatory even.
Kermit the Frog sang a song about how it wasn't easy being green, and I find myself feeling guilty that I'm living in a rented green-zoned house, which means it's in the "go" zone. For the orange people in the "hold" zone their lives remain in limbo waiting like that unfortunate character Winnie in Samuel Beckett's play Happy Days, as she becomes buried in a mound of dirt.
Sick and tired of being given the mushroom treatment and left in the dark for months by Cera, at last those in the red zone have been offered a deal, but one doesn't envy them buying land off greedy developers, borrowing heavily from the banks to afford land in the west, and the battle with insurance companies over the ghastly fine print.......
Later, I trawl back through sent and received messages on my cellphone going back for the past few months and see R U OK? writ large a million times over.
It's a wonder that this cut to the chase question, which says it all, hasn't wound up emblazoned across T-shirts.
In some ways life is fine. We are "green". We R OK. We will continue and find resilience and make the most of what we have and look for replacements for what we have lost. On other days, the enormity of the changes and the uncertainty about the future and the ongoing shakes and the impact the event is having on friends, students, strangers; the constant feeling of loss as I see another building gone, the view changed somehow, somewhere, and the uncertainty of what is open, working, moved, gone, all feels quite overwhelming.
It is hard to write about. But it is happening.... no one here can be unaffected but the best bit is we are all in that space... we find common ground with others instantly... asking where were you in the 7.4, 6.3's etc breaks down many barriers!
For a real map of the city and the zones, and their colour coded meaning, go to http://www.cera.govt.nz/
or here
There is a great interactive map too;
http://www.rebuildchristchurch.co.nz/blog/2011/6/the-land-map-zones
