The Aftermath of 22 February 2011

So it's been months since my last post.

Three days after that post, after having been able to freely travel my city; we were literally thrust up into the air two metres and slammed back down, shaken from side to side in one of the world's most devastatingly powerful earthquakes.

My city is literally in ruins.

The magnitude 6.3 earthquake had a force of 2.4 times gravity flowing through it, and the epicentre at only 5.9 kilometres deep close to the heart of the city was a fatal blow. The Red Zone, a large area of the central city, has been closed now for months.

And in those months we have constantly been hit by aftershocks ranging from 3.0 to the low 5's in magnitude. There has been no rest for the wicked.


This past Monday, the 13th of June, we were hit first at 1pm with a 5.6 magnitude aftershock. An hour and twenty minutes later we were rocked yet again by a 6.3 magnitude aftershock.

Words cannot begin to describe the feeling of having the earth feel like it's being pulled from under you; of listening to the buildings surrounding you shudder and shake under the pressure of the lateral movements.

Before Monday, something in the range of 900 buildings were to be demolished in the central city. Watching as the earth finally stopped moving and the ominous dust cloud rose into the sky from the Red Zone was a sick feeling. We have lost even more buildings.


But it's not just buildings that are affected by earthquakes. We have lost copious amounts of infrastructure; ranging from roading, to sewerage, to water and power. My heart goes out to those people that have been working for months since February, trying to get working water and sewerage back to many parts of the city; Mother Nature has made the past nine months a doozie of a time, but this was a cruel, cruel blow.

We have been resilient, we have laughed off and dug up our roads and driveways; we have cleared debris; we have grinned and bared so many aftershocks. But some of us have had enough. Monday has proved to be one too many earthquakes for some of my fellow Christchurch people.

And I don't blame them. As of right now, going back to the 4th of September when we first began having earthquakes that were even remotely strong enough to alert people of the fact, we have been through 6915 of the bastards.

That equates to 27.22 aftershocks per day.

But it is not the actual case. In the twenty four hours following the 5.6 and 6.3 magnitude quakes on Monday, we had 86 aftershocks. It's hard to comprehend, even for me.


I think the people of Christchurch have lived through enough earthquakes in the last nine months to account for the entire lifetimes of the population of New Zealand and Australia combined, at least!


But for now, I've got years and years worth of work here in Christchurch. For me, there is a huge silver lining to this darkest of dark clouds.

I will not bail on my city.

I will stay true to myself, to my fears, to my loved ones, and to my goals.


I will rebuild Christchurch.

The Clean Up

It's now February.

Driving down one of the main streets in the central city last night, it struck me how much we have to clean up in the city.

We're still tearing down buildings that were so badly damaged by the earthquake that it would be too dangerous to leave standing.

Manchester Street is a shadow of its former self.

The amount of churches that are closed because of damage is beyond belief. We were so lucky that the main Anglican church in Christchurch, the Christchurch Cathedral, was barely damaged. It is in the heart of Christchurch. When you think Christchurch, you think Cathedral Square.

The Cathedral of Blessed Sacrament, the main Catholic church in Christchurch, has been closed for months so that they can strengthen it.

Other, less fortunate churches, are closed and as far as I can tell, are just being propped up while committees decide what to do with them.

I'm not a religious person, but I have a huge appreciation for the architecture of churches, and it saddens me that so many have been badly damaged in the main earthquake itself, and the subsequent aftershocks. Especially the Boxing Day aftershock, that had the central city on lock-down once again.

We are still incredibly lucky. Not one death. Despite what Wikipedia claims, the death toll is still zero.

It is still a world first.

An earthquake of that magnitude should have harmed people. But it didn't. And it's a great show of how well the New Zealand Building Code works, and the standards our buildings have to meet when they are built.

The main purpose of the building code is to prevent the harm of people.


And it did just that.

11.1.11

OMGZ!

Now that's how you really do the date! Day, month, year. It's logical.

Haha anyway, welcome to 2011! This year is going to be a good one. My final in tertiary education, not to mention the Rugby World Cup which is here in my homeland of New Zealand.


I'M GOING TO BE IN RUGBY FEVER MODE FOR AAAAAGES!!

I love it. And it's very me.

I should really have posted this at 11.11pm, but I'm too tired to wait.

10.11pm will do.


(disregard that time at the bottom. I posted at 10.11pm on my laptop. Lulz)

Family. If Only You Could Choose Them.

Warning: this is a semi rant about one part of my dysfunctional family.

My aunty is being such a douche right now.

Two months ago my grandmother died of bowel and stomach cancer. We found out and then she died maybe 5 days later.

They live 3 hours away from us so we'd made multiple day trips down.

My aunty is taking it pretty hard. but she's acting as if it's only her that's been affected. Her and my mum's brother flew over from Australia to be at my grandmothers bedside. And he was the one to inform my mum that her mum had died.

Via text.

Not a phone call. Neither of them thought to ring mum. My aunty didn't even bother to call or text at all.

So my mum has to live with the fact she found out through an impersonal text that her mother had died.

Add to the fact mum's biological father died last month as well.

And here's my aunty carrying on like a unemotional twat, like she's the only one affected by everything.

Grow up and live with it. yes it's hard. But there's no need to carry on the way she is. Not even sending Christmas cards like every year. Most people like to cling to the things they do everyday, they like that bit of normalcy. Not her. She's being overly dramatic and the thing is, it's hurting my mum.


And I hate seeing my mum hurt and sad.

*gag* lulz

So I found this quote today, sifting through my files on my new laptop after putting my back up of everything on it from my old one. It's one from 2005 I must have used on something like a blog, or I don't really know to be honest. I've dated it though.. Keep in mind we do our dates the logical way.

"7/5/05: A girl asked a guy if she was pretty, he said no. She asked him if he wanted her, he said no. She asked him if she left would he cry, he said no. She turned to leave, he grabbed her arm and said… you're not pretty; you're beautiful. And I don't want you; I need you. And I wouldn't cry if you left; I would die."

If only that guy existed... I kid, I kid. It's nice to speculate but I doubt a single human being could really be like that, let alone recite it. Even the most emotional woman could never utter that on the spot. The quote itself is gag worthy in all it's sappy lovey dovey-ness, but I'll admit, it's cute. It garnered an "awwwwww" when I read over it.

I like finding stuff I found interesting or worth keeping years ago, you can reminisce, so-to-speak and compare how you were then to how you are now.


Hindsight is a beautiful thing too.

Hens Night

Had my first Hens Night a couple Friday's ago.

Pretty good night! We had a list of silly things to do as a part of it. I swear the bride-to-be did hardly anything haha.

Got some old guys number written on my arm (although I'd have preferred the waiters), greeted some guys by saying hey sexy, used the worst pickup line ever, got some guys jeans and got the panties of another girl. Yep.She was a British girl, over for her OE with two other guys. I felt bad we were gonna take them so got a picture of her with them in her mouth haha. Drunk people can be very obliging when they're in a good mood.

Pic for the fiends..

Do you like whales? Cos there's a humpback at my place.Smh haha

4th September 2010

My city was hit by a 7.1 earthquake at 4.35am. Think the Haiti earthquake, but slightly bigger.

Without a doubt, it was the most terrifying thing I've ever experienced and would not wish anyone to go through. Not even my worst enemy.

You are so completely helpless in that you just have to wait it out until it's finished. Miraculously, not one single person died. And I'm pretty sure that's a world first for that magnitude of an earthquake.

A lot of buildings have been destroyed, some are still to be ripped down because they are unsafe. We have one of the toughest building codes in the world, and it's shown how well built our buildings are through the absence of death and how a lot of buildings are perfectly fine. The ones that have been condemned or destroyed in the actual earthquake itself are all old buildings, some are heritage, which makes it harder on the city. This is our history that is being demolished, not just a meaningless building that will have no impact on how the city goes on.

As of 11.09pm last night, we've had 2775 aftershocks.

And this could go on for at least another year. Some are big, some are not even noticeable, but it is the aftershocks that continue to do damage to our homes, our buildings, our roads. Unfortunately it is something that we cannot prevent. It is something that we have come to live with, and will continue to live with.

We lost power, some for hours, some for days, sewerage was damaged, some places still do not have plumbing and drainage in the worst hit suburbs, but have been evacuated to places where they can stay. In total, over four billion dollars in damage was done to my tiny wee city.

My heart goes to those that have lost their homes and their places of work. My house is yet to be looked at and has some significant damage, but for the mean time it is livable. And right now that is all that matters.

And now for some photos...




















Once I'm done with school in a week or so, I hope to go around the city and get more photos of everything.