By Juliet Speedy
Thousands turned out today in Christchurch to see the inner city, for the first time since February, when the new shipping container mall opened in the heart of the CBD.
It is a big step in the city's recovery and rebuild and is the first part of the red zoned inner city shopping area to open.
It was a small walk in for the people of Christchurch but it represented a big step in the city's recovery.
Thousands flocked in at midday to see the Prime Minister reopen city mall.
Resident Tina McCormack says it feels like part of her heart is back.
“The timing of it is just unbelievable in terms of what it's going to do for everyone.”
Another resident, Kelly Gibson, says the re-opening gives people the confidence to get back into town, “get back out there doing things”.
“I love it, Ballantynes and the city, I’ve lived here all my life,” says resident Carol Harvey.
The opened section is a tiny pocket ring-fenced away from the empty lots and doomed buildings like the Grand Chancellor. It has 27 hand picked specialty shops including Christchurch retail institutions Ballantynes and Johnson’s Grocers who opened their doors for the first time today.
“I’ve never been so excited in all my life and it's lovely to see the response to people coming back to the city,” says owner Colin Johnson.
Paul Lonsdale from the group Restart the Heart says today is one of the single biggest steps for Christchurch.
“We've claimed a bit of our city back and we've done it in a way that involves a bit of that retail activity.”
The mall will be open seven days a week and the shipping container shops have six month leases but it is expected they could be here for up to a year before the proper rebuild gets underway.
It has excited both the city and the Prime Minister.
“I think it's tremendous. I think it's quite funky actually, it's got a really nice feel to it, it's modern and it's fresh and it's a nice way of introducing people back to the CBD here in Christchurch,” says John Key.
One step of hundreds more to get Christchurch back to any sense of normality.
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