Can you get from one end of Christchurch to another without passing an empty site?

Can CHARLIE GATES get from one corner of Christchurch to the other without passing an empty site? Welcome to the First Annual Christchurch Rebuild Maze

The challenge was simple – get from one corner of the four avenues in Christchurch to the other without passing an empty site.

It was a challenge that turned the city centre into a maze with empty sites acting as dead ends. Myself and visual journalist John Kirk-Anderson called it the First Annual Christchurch Rebuild Maze.

Google Earth We got six blocks east, but only one block south.

We knew it would be tough. New figures from the Christchurch City Council show there are 62.7 hectares of vacant land within the four avenues, covering space about three times the size of the Botanic Gardens. In other words, a lot of empty sites that could block our path across the city.

Read more:

* Empty central Christchurch sites cover land three times the size of Botanic Gardens

* Owners of empty CBD sites urged to grow grass

* Rebuild leaves Christchurch with a glut of office space

* Central Christchurch building at saturation point?

* Taggers turn skyline into ugly eyesore

* Slow progress on abandoned buildings at the heart of Christchurch

It would turn out to be a tricky piece of urban orienteering that turned the city streets into a game board, made us look at Christchurch in a new light and acted as a test of recovery progress.

JOHN KIRK-ANDERSON/STUFF Game over, man: Our quest came to an end at 80 Bealey Ave.

Our quest into the labyrinth began on the corner of Bealey and Fitzgerald Ave on the top right of the four avenues. The aim was to get to the corner of Moorhouse and Deans Ave on the bottom left of the four avenues. A distance of 3.72km. There were a few simple rules. We had to get there in the most direct route possible – zig-zagging in a roughly southwestern direction – and empty sites outside the four avenues did not count as dead ends.

It was not a great start. We set off down Fitzgerald Ave, but hit our first dead end, an empty residential site, after 50 metres.

We doubled back and set off west along Bealey Ave. What followed was a convoluted and difficult path as we repeatedly tried to head south from Bealey Ave, only to turn back once we hit an empty site.

JOHN KIRK-ANDERSON/STUFF An empty site on Manchester Street was yet another dead end.

There were a few close shaves. An empty and cracked house on Bealey Ave looked ominous, but was mercifully still standing so we could keep on questing. A container cafe on an empty site on Durham St averted a potential dead end. Buildings under construction were a welcome site, delivering us from a dead end. Pocket parks became our friend, providing neat short cuts across city blocks.

Ultimately, we were thwarted by the multitude of empty sites. Our journey came to an end at 80 Bealey Ave. As the crow flies, we travelled a total distance of 1.48km. We got about six blocks west, but only one block south.

But our adventure made us look at the city with new eyes. We became aware of the small empty sites that are so commonplace in the city that we ignore them.



It made us realise that, beyond the large empty sites earmarked for big regeneration projects in the central city, there are a plethora of small vacant sites on the fringes.

Google Earth We wanted to get from one corner of the four avenues to the other.

That brings home how long a full recovery might take and how far we have to go.

Maybe we will have better luck on our quest next year.