Saturday sport may sound like a pursuit that would fall by the wayside after devastating natural disasters such as the Christchurch earthquakes, but recreation staff at the Christchurch City Council found the opposite.
In a city where the word "munted" became technical jargon, council recreation planner Kelly Hansen said, the parks and reserves were obliterated by liquefaction or torn apart; the cracks deep enough to lose a child.
Of the city's 980 parks, 397 were damaged, and the cost of repairing green space alone was close to $18 million.
But Ms Hansen and parks asset planner Olivia Dovey, both from the Christchurch council, said within 10 days of the fatal February earthquake, despite parks not featuring as a top priority for the council in the aftermath, organised sport was back up and running.
That was not only from a desire for a return to normality, but a necessity for parents in a city with no schools for children to "farm them out" on a Saturday morning.
Ms Dovey and Ms Hansen were in Dunedin yesterday, sharing their experiences with some of the 225 delegates at the New Zealand Recreation Association annual conference at Forsyth Barr Stadium.
Those attending the conference were mainly local authority managers, academics, policy makers and planners in charge of hundreds of millions of dollars of annual expenditure.
The three-day conference finished yesterday, and included focus areas such as research, health and the impact of natural disasters.
Yesterday's talk was called "You know you're in Christchurch when ...", and the response included when 3-year-olds knew how to say "liquefaction" and what it meant; going for a walk was hazardous to your health and removing hundreds of trees without consent did not raise a flicker of controversy.
Ms Dovey said after the September 2010 earthquake each of the city's 980 parks had to be checked and assessed for damage.
"We had to invent an emergency response plan," she said.
That came in useful after the February quake, but it still took eight weeks just to check all the parks for damage.
Springs had developed where none were before, and liquefaction had to be completely removed if it appeared in a park, because nothing would grow in the mess.
Ms Hansen said a host of sports from rowing to kite surfing ceased after waterways became off-limits because of sewage.
In some areas where water sports had taken place, the river beds had been pushed up to the point the water level was too low.
One rowing club was left with no water, while another was flooded.
Ms Hansen showed a photograph of a bowling club that looked normal, but the green itself had been obliterated by liquefaction.
One park had a stadium that was undamaged, but the suburb around it had an uncertain future, meaning the sports ground was in a similar situation.
Ms Hansen said other parks had been commandeered for use as everything from land for substations to dumping grounds to temporary headquarters for contractors.
"Reserves Acts and management plans mean nothing in an emergency."
The result for Christchurch was a huge opportunity. There were many aspirations for turning red zone areas where houses were to be demolished into parks.
But while there were plenty of aspirations, there were "massive budget constraints", she said.
Despite the damage, Ms Dovey said 904 parks were now open, just 42 were closed and 34 had limited access.
