Simmersons NZ: The day the earth DIDN'T stand still !

A lot has happened in the last 10 days and it all started with a rather scary early morning wake-up call from Mother Nature. 4.35am and Matt and I leaped out of bed as a large earthquake rocked the house. Matt literally swayed, running across the playroom towards Ben's room and I had to hold on to the door frame and didn't even make it to Joe. Both boys were awake and scared but Joe had managed to climb off the top bunk. The noise was horrendous and it felt like it was all never going to end. In fact the first quake was 40 seconds long. The power had been knocked out as soon as the shaking started and everything was like an alien landscape. Thank goodness I had picked up the Lego on the playroom floor that evening.

We put the boys in our bed along with an i -pod and mobile phone for torches, while we sorted warmer clothes and then decided to evacuate along with the rest of our neighbourhood. With wobbly legs we made our way downstairs and to the car. We had no idea where the earthquake was located at this point and we live in the tsunami evacuation zone. We joined the stream of traffic inland and popped in to pick up Nana. She was in conference with her neighbours outside at 5am!

Annie and Malc had been in touch and said they were heading off, but only had a little fuel, so we decided to get out of town and see Katherine and India. The roads were mostly OK until we reached the on ramp to the motorway which looked like a war zone with ripples, cracks and crevasses. Traffic was turning around and coming towards us, but the 4WD came into its own and we managed to get around the worst of the cracking. Katherine and India were at a friend's house so we called there first and returned to their house, lit a fire and made toast by the flames. The power was back on by about 6.30am and more information was coming in about the 7.1MM quake. Roy and Ash were camping with the scouts in a hut at Porters in the Alps so nothing was heard of them until they got into cellphone range that afternoon. Someone had gone up and told them about the earthquake (they had thought it might be an avalanche or a local quake) and they headed home early.

We returned home around lunchtime and had power, but no water. We could also see the large cracks running through our supporting beams and had to decide whether to move out - yes we did. Nana is letting us stay with her and disrupt her life until we can get an assessor in. We and 50000 other people have claims with the Earthquake Commission (so far) so it may be quite some wait. Luckily there was not much damage to our contents. We lost an African ornament, a clock fell off the wall and the pantry contents had shifted, but mostly we were unscathed. At least the bookshelves stayed upright!

We had to boil all our drinking water for several days once the water was back on as well as conserving water too (the sewerage system was severely disrupted). There are still portaloos in some streets where the sewerage is not fixed. The central city was badly hit and lots of buildings continue to be pulled down. Lots of the roads are damaged all over the city. Some neighbourhoods suffered a lot with liquefaction and houses sunk and twisted into the ground. There are lots of pictures on the Internet of course (NZ Herald, Stuff etc) but below are some pictures from our local area. Thankfully no-one was killed in the quake and all the emergency services, army etc have worked really hard to ensure safety. (One lemur died at the zoo when it drowned trying to escape the island it lives on.)

School and Kindy were closed for a week until safety checks could be completed. They returned today and have both had a good time. 2 more weeks and then it is the end of term!!!
Matt moved into his new office block 5 days before the earthquake after a 130 million dollar refurb. He was not able to work there last week as there was damage and has since been told to work from home for the next 6 weeks at least! The fire escapes are wrecked and there is a lot of mess on the upper floors. Some of the city centre is still cordoned off but lots were back at work today. Swimming pools and libraries remain closed and other services are slowly coming back on line. I am sure it is going to be some time until we all feel normal again.

We have had nearly 500 aftershocks some of which have been quite big and set the heart racing again. We have had to follow the drills a couple of times and the boys are quite expert now (although Ben just wants to get under his covers). It seems to have settled down now to about 10-15 a day, but typically there always seems to be one as you are settling off to sleep!