From the papers

 

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/christchurch-earthquake/4776923/Ken-Rings-Christchurch-earthquake-claims-terrifying-people

Same observation here. Most of Chch will be deserted on Sunday and the roads will be clogged.

 

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/christchurch-earthquake/4777224/Christchurch-is-grumpy

Yes it is too soon for a memorial and I wonder how many will go, my pick is not many - everyone here is saying this is for people outside the city.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=10712982

We knew this would happen but what an insensitive headline.

 

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10712989

Heartbreaking.

 

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/christchurch-earthquake/4777345/Water-back-on-tap-soon-in-Christchurch

Finally great news!

 

 

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Hot pies for breakfast

From Herald on Sunday 6 March 2011

 

Confession time. I live in Avondale.

That is, on the banks of the Avon, next to Aranui, Avonside and over from Dallington. Yes, despite my metra-Kiwi language and references, I'm in Christchurch. I won't be offended if you have to read this slowly so it makes sense.

And it's time to talk of shoes and ships and sealing wax and cabbages, large quantities of mud, car wheels and suspicious-looking black bags that now bob in the Avon mud reservoir.

The Reservoir is what we used to refer to as the Wainoni Loop of the Avon River. I was here for this quake, bravely clinging to a table leg as the table bounced across a kitchen.

I knew immediately it was bigger than the last quake and that the damage would be severe. Of course, 60 per cent of Christchurch you can travel through and be unaware there was a devastating earthquake at all. The damage is in the east and is patchy around the rest of the city.

Friends tell me there is a long-standing suspicion in Auckland (when anyone bothers to think about it) that the resentment towards the City of Sails is simply because other places just want to be like Auckland.

Well, now we are like Auckland: since last week, it can take a couple of hours to travel 100m down the road.

We're a hardy lot down here - we have to be. Hardly any roads, no bridges, huge mud piles and banks of sand ... Driving down lumpy, broken roads at night, dust storms blowing wildly, I was cast back to 1992 when I served in Sri Lanka with Peace Brigades International. The main differences are Christchurch is considerably colder, and there are fewer bullet holes.

Otherwise, the comparison between the mud of the Garden City and a war zone are apt. I've spent a few days at Civil Defence headquarters and it is governed by a sense of military purpose and precision. The city council may have done bugger all over here after the first quake but they have risen to the challenge this time.

And while we don't have any portaloos in our part of Avondale or Avonside, we hear that there's at least one street in Beckenham where they have power and water and one portaloo per house - and we're grateful for them.

The challenge now is surviving. We've picked up some food tips, like the joys of a hot breakfast - choosing between service station pies or sausage rolls, and how to select the best accompanying flavour of potato chips. I can also give advice on cooking with a camp gas stove, the time and place to be a naked chef, the uses of melted ice cream and how to water down milkshakes without water.

I don't think it's all over for Christchurch - when the rebuilding happens we have options. For example, we can be the world's most advanced earthquake-proof single-layer city. Or the only Eastern European-themed concrete tilt slab city in the world.

Christchurch residents are proceeding with determination and grit. The grit is through our hair, clothes and houses, but we know one day it will wash out.

I personally knew at least three of those who have tragically died and it is sobering. What some families are going through I can't imagine.

Each night before I go to bed I wonder whether another quake will mean I won't wake up tomorrow. However, I know more people who survived - right now we've won the quake and it's all about surviving the rebuilding.

The messages of hope and support from all around New Zealand are very welcome.

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Japan

The Japanese quake this evening (our time) is particularly raw for us.

The Japanese Search and Rescue team leaves here tomorrow and they have done superb work in Christchurch following our 6.3 quake.  Now they have an 8.8 and a tsunami of devastating proportions at home to address.

Sadly many of the dead and injured here were Japanese.

I can only hope their rescue efforts go as well as can possibly be expected.

 

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We built this city on rock n roll.

I did wonder about writing about the earthquake (sorry, ‘aftershock’) in Christchurch again, after all there is such a thing as having too much of a bad thing.  My thought was yes and no.  ‘Yes’ I could write about it and ‘no’ I didn’t have any other ideas.

 

First though the term aftershock, there has been a lot of confusion around this.  An aftershock is when the ground moves suddenly and can crack and destroy houses and kill people, while an earthquake has quite different insurance liabilities. 

 

The term ‘safe as houses’ is mocking as the idea of terra firma and things we can rely on have vanished.

 

And in the new environment strange surreal things have happened. I’ve spent my life avoiding discussion of body functions and would have even recently been voted least likely to have 400 toilets in my garage.  Rangiora Earthquake Express; a fantastic volunteer group, have changed all that and made 6,000 chemical toilets to give away.  I’m hoping at the next election I can vote them in to replace the local Councils.  They make sure things get done, literally.

 

More importantly every person you meet wants to talk and you swap stories and experiences.  People know their neighbours.

 

The question for Christchurch is what does the future hold?

 

The issue is certainty in an increasingly uncertain world. Seismologists can’t tell us when there’ll be more shakes or their size. My cat can at least give an hours’ notice. Science knows more about missile guidance systems than earthquakes.

 

To moon someone is to bare your naked bottom at them, and metaphorically that is exactly what Moon Man John Ring is doing to sell his almanacs.  He may turn Christchurch into a deserted ghost town on 20 March and I’ll eat my liquifaction if he’s right, but residents aren’t taking any chances. 

 

It’s so bad that newspaper astrologers could have a resurgence in trustworthiness surveys. 

 

Current debate is what the future holds.  Part of Christchurch has gone forever though this isn’t new.  Among many architectural ‘fails’, Kiddey’s Toy Shop in the central city, a single level wooden trove, was destroyed for an eight storey faux mirror glass building in the 1980s that was a mere outhouse in Dallas terms and with all the soul of JR Ewing.

 

Much of the city has been run down for years, usually by media reports only covering crime.  The rebuild is still on many drawing boards.

 

Much of the city has had tired empty old buildings for a long time, and a variety of competing styles.  Seismologists could consider swapping disciplines, they might be able to more accurately predict what new Christchurch will look like.

 

The reality is things have changed.  Any rebuild, mothballed suburbs, whatever size and timing, there will very likely be earthquakes in future.  The thing is though people have come together.  Messages of support are still coming through and Christchurch is full of volunteers from up and down New Zealand.  We know now what the ground can do and in the ring of fire we know that whatever happens, New Zealand rocks.

 

This is the second piece I wrote following the 22 Feb 6.3 quake that hit Christchurch. Since i didn't have power for 10 days it took a long time to get anything down at all.

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