A quick day trip to Christchurch today to see the new library, Turanga, and the newly restored Nurses Memorial Chapel. The chapel was erected in 1928 to honour the memory of nurses who died in the First World War and during the devastating influenza epidemic that swept through New Zealand in 1918. In particular, the chapel honours the ten nurses who died when the Marquette was torpedoed in the Aegean Sea, en route to Salonika. The chapel was built with public subscription and is considered to be a unique memorial to First World War nurses in New Zealand. The chapel suffered considerable damage during the Canterbury earthquakes, and a $2 million grant from Christchurch Council enabled the painstaking rebuild to be undertaken.
