Uplift Hub Kaikoura Project a Post Earthquake Community/Retail Space.

Just after midnight on November 14 in 2016 a powerful earthquake struck the seaside town of Kaikōura in New Zealand. Twenty one faults ruptured along 180km of surface fault during the magnitude 7.8 quake and the event was deemed the most complex quake ever recorded.

The quake ripped up highways, broke buildings, created walls of earth, and brought tonnes of rock and rubble on to the roads isolating our coastal town from the million tourists who visit annually.

It has been devastating for our community, many are reliant on the visitors who come to enjoy marine life, whale watching and dolphin encounters. Cut off from the outside world the earthquake changed our lives instantly, and we had no idea how long our beautiful town, known as where the mountains meet the sea, would remain isolated.

During the year a group of businesses got together to build a container mall ready for when the roads reopened, similar to Christchurch’s successful Re:Start Mall, which used brightly coloured containers as temporary shops after the city's own 2011 earthquake. The Kaikōura Uplift Hub was to be a place for businesses needing earthquake repairs to relocate to, and provide an important community space and was a sign of hope and progress for the rebuild.

Long delays in getting resource consent meant the project was late getting off the ground. The owners of Paper Plus Kaikōura and Gecko Gearz ended up privately funding a much-smaller project. The Uplift Hub includes a large community space, and a Lions-funded local arts and craft space where the proceeds go back into community projects, and it stands on the site where the grand Adelphi Hotel, demolished after the quake, stood for 96 years.

In December our coastal highway was fixed and people are returning to our beautiful town but the Kaikōura Uplift Hub urgently needs more funds. Which is why we are asking for your help.

Your donations will be used to help with the infrastructure costs, concrete pathways, builders to get the containers on the sites, cranes to move containers onsite, and transport costs from Christchurch. The funds won’t be used for the container shops, which we purchased ourselves.

If you can’t give any money we would really appreciate if you could share this page with your friends. We believe this is an important investment for our town and community. Already it makes our town look alive and vibrant, people come to relax and it shows them we are moving forward as quickly as possible in a economically difficult and challenging time.

Thank you.