Left: In 2008 - happier times....The victims are still there, but for the moment the priority is elsewhere:
As many as 22 tourists are thought to be buried in the rubble of Christ Church Cathedral and its spire.
..."The woman who got out about one minute before the tower came down said there were people up there behind her when the tower came down.
...Jamie Canard was eating lunch and watching people play a game on the giant chess set in the city square when the quake hit.
He watched the spire crumble.
"As soon as it fell, I knew people would be dead."
The 38-year-old programmer ran into the cloud of dust created by the collapsed spire to try to help those who were trapped or injured.
But someone yelled: "Leave! Get out! It's not safe."
He said he knew people would be buried under the rubble, but couldn't see anyone.
"I now feel like a fool leaving, now that I know people died trapped in there."
...Although Bishop Matthews said those inside were likely to be tourists, anyone could have been in there.
"Because it was iconic and they would have been in there for a number of reasons, just to go and see it or to come and pray, or perhaps for the noon Eucharist."
...The cathedral has until now attracted about 700,000 visitors a year and climbing the 134 steps of its bell-tower was one of the most popular of the many activities it had to offer.
The tower was 36m high and the spire rose 27m above that.
...Much of Christchurch was built around the cathedral, which was conceived of soon after the first four ships of European settlers arrived in 1850.
Its foundation stone was laid in 1864, and it was eventually completed in 1904 at a cost of £64,000.
Although it was designed according to the tradition of European cathedrals, ceiling timbers of matai and totara from Banks Peninsula, stone from local quarries and Polynesian art works gave it a strong cross-cultural identity.
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