Ardern to attend memorial

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern will pay her respects to the 185 people killed in the February 2011 earthquake at a memorial service marking the seventh anniversary of the disaster.

The names of those who lost their lives in Christchurch on February 22, 2011, will be read out during today’s 45-minute memorial service at the Canterbury Earthquake National Memorial on the corner of Montreal and Cambridge streets.

The service will start at

12.30pm. Attendees should arrive at least 10 minutes early.

One minute’s silence will be observed at 12.51pm – the time the

magnitude-6.3 quake struck. Ardern will speak during the service, the Act of Remembrance will be read, and Voices Co will perform before victims’ families and survivors lead the public past the memorial to lay flowers and other tributes.

The theme of today’s service is ‘‘keeping their dreams alive’’.

Elsewhere in Christchurch, the University of Canterbury will unveil a commemorative sculpture, designed by artist Riki Manuel, at 10.30am at the Clyde Rd end of University Drive.

The sculpture, commissioned in

2015, depicts a koru facing down, which represents a life taken before fully grown. The surface is rippled to represent the Avon River, while brass flowers on top represent the flowers thrown into the river each year on the anniversary of the quake.

River of Flowers memorials will take place at five sites between

12.30pm and 1.30pm. They are being held at the Barbadoes St bridge, Avondale bridge, the Methodist Church on Avonside Drive, the Yacht Club car park at Moncks Bay, and the former site of the Medway St bridge. Flowers will be dropped into the river at each site.