The new NZME building in Armagh Street is opposite the Margaret Mahy playground and Avon River. Photo / Hamish Clark
OPINION
For the first time since the Christchurch earthquakes, I have returned to a new office in the centre of the city.
It has been a monumental week for me. Excited like a school kid on the first day at a new school. Anxious after 11 years out of the CBD. Nervous not really knowing where to go or what to do now that I am back in the city.
For the past 11 years, I have been working on the outskirts of Christchurch as the city was rebuilt.
First in the corporate boxes at Addington Raceway - a sanctuary from the quakes and temporary location while looking for a new permanent location after being kicked out of the central city.
Then to an office in Lincoln Rd near the netball courts, new, modern, and surrounded by law and accounting firms.
And then next to the railway yards in Middleton, where you could feel the shudder of the locomotives and hear the seagulls on the corrugated iron roof.
On Monday we moved into the new NZME building, home to the NZ Herald and Newstalk ZB, One Roof, and The Hits radio stations in the old MED building opposite the Margaret Mahy Playground.
I was so excited by the move I brought my family in to show them over the weekend. They played basketball at the hoop out the back and scootered along the track by Manchester St, all wanting to come here after school to the playground.
It's the perfect location on the northern edge of the CBD, not far from New Regent St and The Square and right beside the banks of the Avon River.
It is less than 200 metres from Newstalk ZB's last home on Worcester St near Latimer Square before the building was famously imploded.
A lot has changed since that terrible day, a lot of good things but the memories still linger.
So this week I took an unintended walk around the city.
I was surprised by the flood of flashbacks of the Christchurch Earthquake that came back as I walked into the new office in Armagh St.
It's not far from where I last worked in Kilmore St, where the road was buckled and bent, buildings had come crashing down, and chaos reigned.
It's a stone's throw from the roads I trod that terrible February day, through the dust and the rubble, over the liquefaction, past the injured and emergency workers trying to save those trapped inside buildings.
It was strange and yet familiar ... the same streets I have walked for over 30 years and know like the back of my hand from working at various offices in central Christchurch.
Sadly all those have been demolished, Kent House in Durham St, Radio Avon House in Kilmore St, TVNZ House in Gloucester St, and Mediaworks House in Kilmore St, all gone, as a result of the earthquakes.
Back walking around the city in office clothes and at first, it felt like an out-of-body experience. I couldn't stop looking at all the old buildings, the ones I remembered, the ones I loved, and the new buildings that had replaced the old ones like the smaller version of the BNZ building on the corner of The Square.
The Theatre Royal in Gloucester St - rebuilt and restored to its former glory.
New Regent St with its coffee shops and cafes, the tramlines carved into the street.
Cathedral Junction, a key tram stop between Gloucester and Worcester St, was the dream of John Britten, and still operates as a tram stop for tourists.
I felt like a visitor in my own city.
I couldn't stop looking around with different eyes, bewildered almost.
The Cathedral is a work in progress, but still standing and saved.
San Pan House - a regular lunch spot on Gloucester St from 2003, still standing, still open, just struggling a bit for business.
The city is finally getting its groove back, more businesses and offices returning and breathing new life into the CBD.
It's exciting, exhilarating, invigorating.
Firefighters remain at the scene two days later dealing with flare-ups.