Shaketown

So for those of you who haven't heard Christchurch was rocked by a 7.1 magnitude earthquake last Saturday morning at 4:35.

http://maps.google.co.nz/maps/ms?client=firefox-a&hl=en&ie=UTF8&msa=0&msid=114215793670404019839.00048f8b8d6da4188d66e&ll=-43.520672%2C172.265625&spn=0.697066%2C1.167297&z=9&source=embed

Luckily no-one died and only a few people were injured. Most houses, although some are very damaged, made it through the quake and protected the occupants while they slept.

We took the risk and flew out here and arrived Sunday morning to a city still in shock. For the most part, the town is functioning, except that the CBD (downtown) is still cordoned off because of the brick historic buildings that did not do so well in the quake. We didn't actually feel a shake until Monday evening, but since then we have been feeling them every few hours. Luckily we weren't around for the main quake so we aren't nearly as nervous when an aftershock hits as the locals are. Everyone here is pretty much on tender-hooks, scared of the next shake.

We spent Tuesday driving up and down the rural roads west of CHCH mapping the fault rupture. Joel took a picture of a church that got knocked down in Hororata: http://flickr.com/photos/jpeterb/ We'll put some more photos of shifted roads and hedgerows soon. Pretty impressive stuff!

Our hotel suffered no damage so we feel very safe here even during the aftershocks. The University is closed so we have been spending our time getting to know CHCH, looking for a house to buy and getting important immigrant stuff taken care of. Pretty busy times.

We are looking forward to having the CBD opened up, although it will be a sad sight all those demolished historic buildings.