Earthquake

Well things are moseying along same as always round here. The new exhibition has been up just over a fortnight and seems to be popular with the tourists which is good. I have handed out lots of cards and I think we may get one or two new members as well.

My Uncle says that the house owned by my cousins in Christchurch is green stickered which means it is liveable - just! There is a sea of sandy silt in the back yard which their small dog thinks is great - beach day :) The house is fairly extensively damaged but, being an old Victorian villa in wood, they will repair it. Their street is mostly impassable but they can get out. They now have power but no water or sewage. They do have a well in their backyard though and have built a long drop toilet.

The set of flats next to them are so badly damaged that they will have to be demolished along with half of the city as far as I can make out.

The positive is that only one person known to our family has been badly hurt (The brother of a friend of my sister) so it is property damage that will be the biggest loss. I haven't heard anything about the state of the other relations houses but they are ok. I shall no doubt find out in due course.

My brother in law has driven his tanker up there several times and says that it seems as if the ground is always on the tremble but there was only one mild 'real' earthquake whilst he was there. He had a number of stories from people who were there at the time and I gather it was just unbelievable how much things moved around. It will be a long time before things even start to get back to normal I think.

viv in nz

The photo is Trotters Gorge just out from Palmerston