In 2011, an earthquake destroyed much of Christchurch and took 185 lives. Tonight, the city’s hotels are up for some major awards, as Kimberley Dixon reports
A remarkable 29 hotel and accommodation representatives from Christchurch find themselves finalists in the 2024 HM Magazine Awards, the winners of which will be announced tonight (1st November) at the Cordis Hotel in Auckland.
Our sister publication annually heralds the very best performers in Australasia, and New Zealand operatives have proven no shrinking violets in the competitive hotel performance stakes, with 300+ nominees across the country this year.
The 29 Christchurch finalists are now resilient custodians of the rejuvenated city, now proudly back on the NZ tourism track. It is hard to believe 13 years ago the Garden City – New Zealand’s second largest metropolis – lay in absolute ruins after a 6.3 magnitude earthquake struck on February 22, the second in five months.
Taking 185 lives, the lunchtime quake destroyed thousands of homes and livelihoods, and it immediately became a tourism ghost town cloaked in dust, choked by liquefaction and damaged infrastructure.
National and international rescue teams replaced tourists, and aftershocks continued to stretch nerves for months, even years, as the difficult tasks of demolition and rebuilding began. Insurance premiums soared as assessors became arbiters of yet more agony. To many, it still seems like yesterday.
Tilting Perilously
The city’s tallest hotel at 23 storeys, Hotel Grand Chancellor (HGC), was left tilting perilously in the CBD, eventually being demolished by the end of 2012, with years of official, ‘will we, won’t we’ wrangling over whether to rebuild, to follow.
Just a few weeks after the previous earthquake on 4th September 4 2020, which registered at 7.1 on the Richter scale, the HGC had been given a positive structural review, allowing it to continue operating, and I flew to Christchurch to cover a national Hair & Beauty competition and awards night being held there.
On arrival at the HGC, my sales colleague Diane and I immediately headed to the bar – a little too snugly located under the grand staircase for our liking – to await access to our respective Level 21 rooms.
Hair line cracks in our rooms and bathrooms were, we were assured, just cosmetic, to be dealt with in due course. This, however, was minor compared to the shock we later encountered.
The awards dinner was located on Level 14. After waiting on Level 21 for lifts that never came, we resorted to Plan B.
Precast Scissor-Stairs
Along with a large group of other finely attired attendees, we decided to get to Level 14 via the stairwell, aka the Fire Escape. Not, it transpired, the safest decision at the time.
The precast concrete scissor-stairs had literally come adrift from the walls. Gaps of up to 30+cm from the exterior wall to the stairs themselves were glaringly evident throughout the seven-floor descent to Level 14, with large chips of broken concrete lying on the steps. (A gap of 30cm allows you to look down, when you really shouldn’t!)
It was truly frightening. If another earthquake occurred, these stairs would surely concertina and collapse. All sorts of horrible ways to die sprung to mind. Why was the hotel accepting any conferences, school balls or other major events, while such damage needed repair? Why was it open at all?
Needless to say, it was a long sleepless night, and we beat a hasty exit to the relative safety of the airport in the morning.
When the second quake occurred in February, the HGC was badly damaged, and it needed to be completely demolished. I believe it was a miracle no-one perished there. It did, however, lead to a silver lining in terms of future NZ Building Codes and the findings of the Canterbury Royal Commission of Inquiry – listing new standards for seismic engineering. Details of the hotel’s structure were also recorded for future reference. – https://canterbury.royalcommission.govt.nz/Final-Report-Volume-Two-Contents
Positively Bursting
Forward to 2024 (after a very slow recovery period in which COVID and New Zealand’s worst mass shooting brought unwanted delays), and Christchurch is now bursting with new opportunities and creativity. Its hospitality population is eager to show its resilience, innovation and positivity with a fresh new future to show the world.
A key part of the regeneration of the city is the new Te Pae Convention Centre, where over 500 delegates attended the Aotearoa AHICE
Over 550 tourism, hotel and hospitality delegates descended on the city late September to attend Aotearoa AHICE at the newly opened $440 million Te Pae Convention Centre. Bringing enthusiasm, underscored by a collective commitment to learning, and sharing industry best practices, they left with newfound enthusiasm for the city.
Steady & Ready
The term ‘cautiously optimistic’, once a trite cliché, now aptly reflects the New Zealand Hotel & Accommodation Sector’s outlook for the next 12-18 months, as the industry displays its steady and ready approach to a better future.
