Here we've zoomed in on the end of the church that was on the right in the previous shot. This is where the original church spire was. It was completely destroyed by the 6.3 magnitude earthquake on 22 February 2011; in short, it was ripped off like the end of a cardboard house. Nothing of it remains.

Unfortunately, plate tectonics weren't done with the building. There were follow-up earthquakes like the one on 13 June of the same year (a 6.4 magnitude one which resulted in much of the rose window on the western side of the building falling in), and yet another one (of 6.0 magnitude) on 23 December which caused the remainder of the rose window to collapse.

Apparently the church itself was de-consecrated in November 2011, and there is a new temporary cathedral which I didn't get around to seeing. In fact, I'm not even sure exactly where it is.

Originally the Anglican church had decided to demolish the building. Looking at the damage done here, you can see why. However there was a major up-swelling of protest against that plan on the basis of the historic significance of the building. By the time the matter reached the courts in November 2012 (at which time the High Court granted an application to place a stay on demolition), some demolition had already started.

The political machinations continued for literally years, so let me cut to the chase. A couple of months after we were there, on 9 September 2017, the Bishop for that area announced that 55% of the Synod had voted to restore the Cathedral. The work was expected to take 10 years. Yes, good luck with that.

That's because a contract was signed in August 2018 for the restoration. In 2017 it had been estimated that the reconstruction cost would be $NZ104 million. You know how these things work. By October 2020, when the plans were released, it was up to $NZ154 million.

That said, as of 2022 there are photos which show cranes on the site so presumably work has finally commenced. I will still be extremely surprised if it is completed by 2027. It's not impossible, but I suspect that it's extremely unlikely.