Day Nine

for most cantabrians, life returns to normal tomorrow. back to work. back to school.

of course for others, they are still homeless. some normality may return for them tomorrow, but nowhere near totality.

the sun was shining when i woke this morning. perfect for pancakes in bed, and boy quite obviously had the exact same idea, coz' without asking i was brought pancakes in bed. sitting in bed soaking up the sun with coffee in hand, life just couldn't get much better. it was enough to momentarily forget that in this city and surrounding area we were still in a state of emergency.

i was reminded of a conversation i had the day before about how our city could potentially become a hub for world research. to reiterate again, to have suffered as little damage as we did for a 7.1 magnitude quake, it's pretty astounding.

most of the residential damage has been caused by liquefaction, in , suburbs that really were questionable sites for development. but then so many nz cities are built on reclaimed land, fueled by people's need to be in the bigger cities which just keep growing and growing. in a country this size, with established cities naturally situated near the sea, reclaimed land has almost been a necessity as we have grown as a country. not knowing enough about the christchurch landscape, i can only suggest, that our 'need' for the 1/4 acre dream, encouraged the building on what was, now, not the best place to build.

with such a gorgeous day i figured the city would be humming, well the gardens...and yup they were. the carpark was full, the cafe full, the playground full with families out enjoying a stunning day.

a girlfriend & i wandered through the city, it was still fairly quiet with many places still closed. my first full trip through town i can see how so many think everything is far worse than it is, with the buildings that have appeared again and again in the media not looking great at all. but for every one of those, there are dozens more that perfectly fine. but also there are buildings that there have been no coverage of that are teetering on that line of life and death.

looking at one of the 'newer' buildings in town that is rumored to be coming down, a guy stopped and talked to us. it's amazing how no one used to stop and chat, this guy talked to us for a good 45 minutes this afternoon. of course nothing more was discussed than the earthquake (we're all experts now). we deviated slightly to evolution....but for the whole, solid earthquake.

later in the day i headed to the mall to pick up a few things. i was in farmers when what was a reasonable aftershock hit. i'm still not sure if it was being in a different environment or it actually was quite a 'shock', but it definitely felt a lot worse than it possible was. i can possibly see how so many people are nervous and rattled, if that is what most aftershocks have been like...although the shop assistants seemed to be a bit taken aback too...so maybe it was a bit of a violent shock. otherwise, our house has been 'protecting' us very well!