Christchurch

Christchurch has just had two very large jolts - a 5.8 and a 6.0. There are some reports of damage and liquefaction. As well as many shocked and scared people.

Last week we went to Christchurch for my niece's graduation. It is a city trying desperately to get back to normal.

My niece's little boy is three years old and when we arrived he was making a tower out of his leggo(duplo)blocks. When the tower was tall enough for him he proceeded to jump on the floor beside it. After several jumps it finally toppled to the ground. When asked what he was doing he said 'playing earthquakes'. he knows what liquefaction is and would point it out when we drove around the city.

The children of Christchurch live in a different world and have a different vocabulary and games from the rest of the country!

Season's greetings

I wish all my faithful blogging friends all the very very best for the coming festive season and for the New Year.

We will be spending Christmas celebrations with family, and celebrating a first Christmas with our newest grand daughter, born 4th July this year.



We also have a much loved family member seriously ill and facing a major operation on 28th Dec so will be staying around until she is through and out of danger. Then if all is well we will be enjoying our beachside holiday home as usual in early January.

The photo above is of our Pohutukawa tree, in full bloom at this time of the year. Our own NZ Christmas tree.

Little Blue penguins Released.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/video.cfm?c_id=1&gal_cid=1&gallery_id=123007

Here is a link to a video of the release of a number of little blue penguins into the sea. They have been cared for and cleaned of oil in the last few weeks.

The ship is still stuck firmly on the reef but most of the oil has been siphoned off, and many of the containers are also now off the stricken ship. We are very very lucky that it hasn't broken up during some of the recent storms we have had.

Conservation is taken very seriously here.

Tauranga’s biggest Guy Fawkes fireworks show at Baypark is cancelled due to the impact of noise on the birds being kept at the Wildlife Response Centre in Te Maunga.


Tauranga City Council cancelled the fireworks section of the speedway event to protect the 403 birds being cared for at the centre located less than 500m from the speedway. The night’s race meet will still go ahead.

The centre was set up on October 6 to handle oiled wildlife harmed or at-risk from the oil leak from Rena, the 236m container ship grounded on the Astrolabe Reef.

At the centre there are 337 little blue penguins, one shearwater, one tern, one Australian gannet, three pied shags and 60 rare New Zealand dotterels.
http://www.sunlive.co.nz

Rena still in a precarious position.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/video.cfm?c_id=1&gal_cid=1&gallery_id=122488








It's a murky day here out at sea in the Bay, and the Rena has been battered by a storm in the last 24 hours. However she is still afloat. 1070 tonnes of oil has been taken off, but there is still about 378 tonnes left aboard.

The link above shows a video taken about two hours ago.

Tanglewood!

These interesting roots are hanging down the bank on the walking track around Mount Maunganui.

Rena aftermath

We took a walk around the Mount last weekend and these are some photos of the Rena clean up team in action on the rocks. They have done a magnificent job, there is not much oil on the beaches at all any more. The plastic bags are full of the oil they have extracted from between the rocks and in the rock pools.

Out on the reef the salvage teams are working around the clock to pump out the
remaining oil from the tanks. The containers are hanging on the decks in various precarious positions. They will try to remove them but at the moment the oil is the main priority.

In the second photo, way out on the skyline is Motiti island on the far right, and barely discernible on the far left is the Rena.

The Rugby World Cup

It is ours - for the next four years.

An Update

The 'Rena' is still stuck on the rocks, now it has a huge crack through the middle and it will eventually break up. Looking at this photo I don't know how she is still afloat.

The good news is that some very brave men are boarding it each day, they have managed to get a pipe line to the oil tanks and are pumping off some of the remaining oil onto tanks on barges. They are hampered every now and then by bad weather but as soon as the seas calm down, they resume their work.

Most of the beaches have been cleaned of oil by the volunteers numbering in the thousands. But Motiti Island which is next to the reef and has a rocky shoreline, is a mess.

Many containers have slipped off the ship into the sea, some have washed up on the beaches, others have floated many miles down the coast and have either sunk or have drifted to shore. They are set to become a major shipping hazard.

There's Nothing to say!

I am so upset about the desecration of our beautiful coastline and wildlife - all I can think of to say is...why did this happen?

Images from Sun Live

All eyes are on the 'Rena'

Salvage operations onboard the stranded container ship Rena are concentrating on preparing the ship for the storm expected to last the next couple of days.


The containers onboard have been lashed down ahead of high seas expected to be whipped up by gale forces onshore winds which are expected to arrive later today.

The New Zealand MetService has a gale warning in force for the Bay of Plenty and is forecasting a northeasterly rising to 25 knots this morning and to 35 knots this afternoon, with sea becoming very rough.

Bad weather has halted efforts to pump 1700 tonnes of oil from a stricken container ship off the Tauranga coastline.

Crews aboard the barge 'Awanui' have pumped 10 tonnes of oil from the Rena, which is stranded on the Astrolabe Reef, since 8:30pm last night.

They were called off this morning due to safety concerns amid "changing weather conditions" at the reef.

NZ Herald and Sun Live

Another jolt in Christchurch last night and NZ through to the semi finals in Rugby World Cup!

Big quake rocks Christchurch
By Amelia Wade
5:30 AM Monday Oct 10, 2011
NZ Herald

Christchurch was rocked by a 5.5 magnitude aftershock last night - its biggest shake since June.

The tremor, at 8.34pm, was centred 10km northeast of Diamond Harbour and was 12km below the surface.

Last night, police said there were no reports of injury or damage although residents said the jolt was "big and noisy".

Aftershocks have been keeping Christchurch on edge since the 6.3 magnitude quake on February 22 that killed 181 people and caused billions of dollars worth of damage.

That quake was an aftershock of an even bigger 7.1 quake in September last year, which caused extensive damage but no deaths.

Christchurch Mayor Bob Parker was watching the All Blacks' Rugby World Cup quarterfinal match against Argentina with Prime Minister John Key at Hagley Park when last night's quake struck.

The tremor was definitely large enough to be cause for concern straight after it struck, Mr Parker said.

"It felt sharp enough to worry me but I haven't had any reports of anything too significant, so that's a relief."

The mayor said no one in the crowd seemed to worried about the "wobbly" quake and most stayed at the park after it struck.

"Everyone was very relaxed because we were out in the open. Nothing fell over or tipped up and the power stayed on.

"It was a very significant one and we were all bouncing around a little bit ... But there were quite a few people jumping up and shouting at the ref, and I don't think they even noticed."

Coming closer............

Emergency responders are expecting oil to wash ashore at Western Bay of Plenty beaches, south of Mount Maunganui from Wednesday.

The heavy fuel oil emanates from the leaking container ship, Rena, which grounded on the Astrolabe Reef at 2.20am on Wednesday 5th oct.

Maritime New Zealand national on scene commander Rob Service says an approaching storm is expected to upset the emergency response and cause more oil to spill into the water.

“As a result of that we can expect oil on the beaches.”

Sun Live 10th October

Disaster on the coast - OUR coast

A severe weather watch has been issued for the area where a container ship has been leaking oil off the coast of Tauranga.

The MV Rena has been stuck on the Astrolabe Reef since Wednesday.

It has already spewed 20 tonnes of fuel oil into the sea, sparking a massive operation to try to offload the 2000 tonnes it's still carrying.

The Navy is on its way to help the clean-up effort, with the HMNZS Endeavour scheduled to arrive in Tauranga around six this evening.

Public health warning after spill

Earlier today a public health warning was issued for Bay of Plenty residents not to eat seafood from waters around the Rena.

Medical Officer of Health Jim Miller said no shellfish or fin fish should be eaten from waters with visible oil contamination.

He's highlighted Motiti Island as an area that should be avoided for the collection of shellfish and warned against consuming any seafood with an off, or petrol-like, smell.

Although there is no evidence of the oil spill reaching the coastline, conditions are continually changing, he said, and the health advisory will remain in place until further notice.

NZ Herald, 9 October

Haka Flash Mob at Sylvia Park Auckland (3 Camera Mix)

And Rugby World Cup fever begins!

Christchurch is still shaking!.

A shallow magnitude 4.9 earthquake has rocked Christchurch early this morning.

The quake struck at 3.29am, and was centred 10km east of Lyttelton, off the end of Godley Head, at a depth of 6km.


Since the September 4, there have been at least 8,300 earthquakes in the Canterbury region, with more than 300 larger than magnitude 4.

NZ Herald this morning.

The power of a song

This morning I went to my usual exercise class. We are a group of ladies with a teacher leading, who do a variety of stretches and exercises in a(vain) hope of keeping fit and even losing weight!

The exercises are to music supplied by the teacher, some of her music is more modern but occasionally she adds some very old time songs. Today she played this song, an oldtime tune released during the first world war I think.

As I listened I was absolutely carried back to when I was a young child. My father had been a soldier in the second world war, serving in the middle east and mediterranean, and had a huge repertoire of songs from that era. Some had been altered to include their own army version.

He would rise in the mornings at around 5am, make himself a cup of tea and toast, and then head off down to the milking shed to milk the herd of cows. My bedroom was right next to the kitchen and I would wake to his singing as he waited for the water to boil and then get ready to begin his days work. He had a beautiful singing voice and, as I mentioned, sometimes a slightly different version of the song.

I stood there in the hall with all the ladies around me, trying to hold back the tears. Nobody noticed, they were all too busy trying to keep up with our teacher.

My dad died nearly 40 years ago at a relatively young age. I would walk over hot coals to be able to hear his voice singing again.

Nearly Spring

And another one!

Wonder what lives in here?

We don't have snakes in New Zealand, or a variety of poisonous spiders. So consequently I tend to be very wary when stepping off the beaten track in Australia. No, I am more than wary - make that paranoid!



So I was a careful to steer clear of these little holes we spotted in the sand on the track. I was tempted to poke around with a stick to see if anything came out, but decided to leave well alone.

Australian flowers

These are some of the wildflowers we saw north of Perth. We were not in the wildflower season so there was not the variety one would expect to see in the spring.The top photo is (I think) a type of bottlebrush, the middle one is a small shrub growing by the sea south of Kalbarri, and the last picture is a beautiful banksia tree.

An Ad we would never see now!

An explanation

The photos below:

The top one is a typical side road in the Kalbarri national park, about 700 kilometers north of Perth. This one had been recently graded flat, but ungraded for a few days and they become corrugated.

The second photo is a grass tree. These seem to be all around Western Australia and fascinated me with their stark beauty.

Third - a view through an rock monument at a beach near Margaret River, south of Perth along the rugged coastline.

Last: The Pinnacles. An area of several acres of these unusual rock formations just poking up out of the ground. I was taken by the aboriginal explanation they would give to their young people - they are dead mans fingers - people who have been buried and are trying to rise again!

Random Aussie pics

An Australian Experience

We have just arrived back from several weeks holiday in Australia. We had a great holiday, visiting all the sights and marveling how like New Zealanders Aussies are. And how many of their shops are the same as ours - Bunnings, Subways, MacDonalds, etc etc.

But we (unfortunately) had one unique Aussie experience. We went on a car trip for a few days 'way' up north. Well it seemed like a long way to us but on a map its about 1/4 of an inch. Australia is such a big country. It was 7.30am and we had made an early start, facing a drive of over 600 kilometers back to the city, and were cruising in the car through a national park.

An isolated road, just low scrub on either side, when two kangaroos leaped out of the bushes and ran across in front of us. There was no way we could miss them. The leader made it across, but we just clipped the second one. Unfortunate for Skippy and for us too.

He/she flipped across into the bushes and we were left with a dilemma. Do we stop and go tramping through the bushes (probably snake infested - we were in Australia after all and had heard all about tiger snakes)looking for a wounded animal? If we managed to find it then what would we do with it? Or what would it do to us?

Apparently if you hit a kangaroo you are supposed to check to see if it has a joey. Which one of us would put their hand into the pouch to see if there was one? And if there was, what on earth would we do with it? We were miles and miles from civilization.

So we drove on, feeling rather sick. The car sustained some damage to the bumper/fender and the front panel. The panel beater later told us we were lucky, sometimes the 'roo can come through the windscreen.

The kangaroo however was not so lucky. If he/she survived he will have severe bruising at the least.

Most of the local people there have big 'roo bars on the front of their vehicles. There were several dead kangaroos through out the park, lying on the side of the roads. Obviously they are a hazard. And the cars are too - after all we were in their territory.

Kiwifruit Harvest time again.

The crop is in for the year, its a good one, and all's well. Pics wont load, will try again later.

Corner of foreign land that is forever Kiwi - an ANZAC story. NZ Herald, 26 April

Our Prime Minister, John Key, visited this town in France yesterday, on the day we remember our soldiers who fell in distant countries in war time.

The town is a small one: Le Quesnoy, in the north of France, where every year Anzac Day is celebrated by the citizens, the descendants of those who lived here on November 4, 1918, when the New Zealand Rifle Brigade liberated the town from four years of German control.

The New Zealanders went up over the ramparts of the ancient fortified town, on ladders they liberated from the fire station, it is thought, and added to with bits of sticks from the surrounding forested area.

It is a story of derring do, and good old Kiwi DIY, and the Le Quesnoyans have never forgotten.

There are two streets named New Zealand, and one after the All Blacks.

The Prime Minister said: "I want to say what a wonderful and New Zealand-friendly town Le Quesnoy is. Because I was walking down the main street before and I noticed that you had named an avenue after the All Blacks, and even we haven't done that."

There is much excitement in Le Quesnoy on the last Sunday of every April: the day Anzac Day is celebrated.

There is a strange and enduring connection between the people of this little town and an event that happened almost a hundred years ago.

'We marched down Avenue Nouvelle Zealandie, through an ancient gateway, and then we were on New Zealand soil - a gift of thanks from the town to us. Then we arrived at the New Zealand memorial, high on the rampart walls.'

THE STORY OF LE QUESNOY, 1918

* New Zealand sent 100,000 of its 243,000 men of military age to defend the British Empire during the Great War of 1914-1918.

* From April 1916 until the Armistice on November 11, 1918, the New Zealanders fought as a Dominion Division of the British Expeditionary Force in France and Belgium.

* In early 1918, the NZ Division was away from the frontline retraining and reinforcing losses after the late-1917 campaigns, and from the Passchendaele campaign in particular.

* When the German army commenced its Spring Offensive of March 1918, the allied forces were heavily mauled and gaps appeared in the Allied Front. NZ soldiers moved to plug a gap and helped halt the German army by April 5.

* The final offensive to drive Germany from France and Belgium began in July 1918. By early November, NZ infantry, including the 3rd NZ (Rifle) Infantry Brigade, known as the Rifle Brigade, were positioned in front of Le Quesnoy.

* On the day of the liberation of Le Quesnoy ( November 4, 1918), because of the civilian population, the artillery shelling was contained in front of the town ramparts. Two of three NZ infantry brigades surrounded the town by 9am and the Rifle Brigade defeated German soldiers who had occupied the town for most of the war.

* The operation resulted in the capture of 700 German prisoners and involved firing 300 flaming oil drums at the town walls to create a smokescreen. NZ soldiers entered the town by scaling ladders set against the ancient walls.

Arrgh - was this really fashionable??

This ad appeared in our newspapers around 1985. Note the skin tight shorts, and long socks. Its hard to imagine that the men really dressed like that, reminds me more of the '70's.

A Blaze of Colour

I have just spent a few days away at the beach. We have had a good amount of rainfall in the last few weeks, the hibiscus and bottlebrush have responded in their dramatic fashion and rewarded us with a wonderful blaze of colour.

You are probably getting bored with all the flower pics, but they are too beautiful to keep to myself!

Autumn fruit - apples, kiwifruit, nashis.....and feijoas!

We have a variety of fruit that ripen in the autumn growing either at home or out on our orchard which is a few miles out of town.

We have two varieties of apple - Golden Delicious and Gala, nashi pears, kiwifruit - (just 14 acres), figs, and....... feijoas.

Oh I love feijoas. They have a tropical taste, a little like guava, a little like pineapple, and are very aromatic. In fact, at the moment we have a bag of them in the pantry and you can smell them throughout the house! A tangy fruity smell. How I wish I could send some to you all.

They are about as big as a kiwifruit, and you eat them in the same way, cut them in half and scoop the fruit out with a teaspoon.

However they are not a fruit that everyone likes. I am the only one in our family who eats them. The trees are prolific bearers and it is common to see bags of them on a stand outside houses usually $2 a bag. A tree bears more than a household could possibly eat!

They can be used in cooking - I have made feijoa muffins.And I sometimes cook them and have them on breakfast cereal or make desserts - feijoa crumble with ice cream.

Did I mention that I love feijoas!!!!

Some Autumn colour

These beautiful daisies always add some cheer to the garden just when all the other summer flowers are past their best.

They are Japanese Anenomes.

Another example of Kiwi humour

This email is doing the rounds at the moment. There is a grain of truth in many of these statements.

Title - Pearls from Christchurch.

You know you're from Christchurch when...


*Geonet / ChristchurchQuakeMap is your homepage
*The rest of the country offers you a place to stay
*“Munted” and “buggered” are official technical terms
*You go 'pfffff' when Wellington has a 4.5 earthquake that's 40km deep
*You see a nice park in another city and think it would make a good evacuation point
*You sleep in one suburb, shower in another and collect water from yet another
*When you drive on the right side of the road and no one thinks it's wrong
*You are happy two Policemen came for a visit
*When your bike becomes your best friend
*You think it's fine for a soldier to be stationed at the end of your street
*You see armoured vehicles driving down the road
*It’s normal to greet people with “do you need a shower?”
*A bucket of sh*t is no longer that old car you drive
*Instead of rushing to the clothes line to get clothes in when it rains, you put dirty washing on the line in the hope that it will rain enough to clean them
*Going to Wellington to escape earthquakes makes sense
*Your doctor recommends having a few stiff drinks before bed to help you sleep
*You know how to start and refuel a generator
*You have tied the pantry, liquor cabinet and all the cupboard doors closed and it's not to keep kids out
*You prefer to sit under the table instead of at it
*You think electronics that have "shock proof" should say to which earthquake magnitude
*You know and actually understand the terms and conditions of your House and Contents insurance policies
*You can see irony in claims about houses made of “permanent materials”
*Your en-suite has a vege garden, dog kennel and grass
*Your teenagers are only too happy to sleep in the same room as their parents
*You stop using the term “built like a brick sh*t house”
*Dressing up to "head into town" means putting on a hi-viz vest, hard hat and boots
*Discussing toilet habits with total strangers is an everyday norm
*Wee boys don't get excited when they see (another) digger or a dozer - but all the adults in the street cheer wildly
*Voluntarily staying in Timaru for five days seems like a good idea
*You know what that extra gear lever on your 4X4 is for
*Metservice includes a graph for dust
*You have dust mask tan lines
*You can use the term "liquefaction" in everyday casual conversation, even your 3-year old can
*When a massive group of students appears in your street, you feel overwhelmed with gratitude instead calling the Police. What’s more, the students leave the street in better condition than when they arrived
*The answer to where anything is ... it’s on the floor
*You smile at strangers and greet people like you’re one big family

An inspirational Commercial! (yes there is such a thing)

National anthem perfomed at memorial service - National - Video - 3 News

National anthem perfomed at memorial service - National - Video - 3 News

Hairy Maclary

Next week I am looking forward to attending the latest exhibition at our local art gallery.

Hairy Maclary from the chldrens book 'Hairy Maclary from Donaldsons Dairy' is now nearly 30 years old. He was the creation of a local author Lynley Dodd and Hairy, along with his friends, will be on display at the Tauranga Art Galley from March 4 to celebrate Lynley’s illustrations in her first-ever exhibition.

There is now a series of books featuring Hairy and his friends. They are one of my favourite childrens series with their delightful rhyming characters - Slinky Malinki, Hercules Morse as big as a horse, Bottomly Potts all covered in spots, and the scary Scarface Claw the meanest cat in town.

Kiwi humour - Chch Quake: 30 tonne rock for sale

Trade me is the New Zealand equivalent of Ebay.

A 30 tonne boulder that crashed into a Christchurch home after last Tuesday’s earthquake is up for auction on TradeMe.

The reserve is met with $950 the leading bid as of 9am today.

All money raised from the auction is being donated to the Christchurch Earthquake Relief Fund.

"He is in pristine condition (just a little bit of concrete dust). Suitable for garden feature, or as in our case a magnificent addition to your living area.

Rocky will enhance your "indoor outdoor" flow considerably, especially if you load him in through the garage roof like we did.

Sorry, but we are unable to deliver Rocky but would be happy for you to pick him up and roll him away (please mind our neighbours when you do) :-)

Highest bid (should there be one) gets personalised photo with Rocky (when cordon lifts) and of course a wonderful addition to your home.

On a serious note: ALL proceeds will go to ChCh Earthquake Relief Fund. :-) "
the vendor states.

The auction closes Monday, March 7 at 11.38am.

View the auction here:

www.trademe.co.nz
and type in the search box
'Landscape Rocks for Sale in ChCh'

Be sure to scroll down and read the comments.

UPDATE: The auction has finished and the rock sold for $10,050.00 which will be donated to the earthquake relief fund.

Munted

Definition:
To be broken, bent, scraped, splintered, shattered, crashed, crushed, smashed, snapped, squashed, lascerated, punctured, peirced, cracked, destroyed, burst, demolished, trashed, disintegrated, fractured, fragmented, hit, pounded, pulverized, slamed, or squished.

So many people when interviewed by the media in Christchurch, describe their homes, lives, businesses, as being 'munted'.

Is this a kiwi slang word? I haven't heard it used in other countries, but here in NZ everyone knows what it means. It is used often in everyday speech.

But - people in Christchurch are getting on with their lives, although not easy for many. Lack of power, water and sewerage in many areas makes life very difficult. As well as the trauma of continuing aftershocks.

As well as the student 'army' we also now have the 'farmy army' - a collection of farmers who meet each morning and go out into the suburbs to help clean up. And also various rugby clubs who are also organised into food relief, and clean up operations.

My extended family members who live in Christchurch are all safe and well. But they all have a tale to tell. One has a very badly damaged house and the land under it is ruined by liquefaction. The women have moved out of town to stay with relatives, and the men folk are behind making the houses lockable, and cleaning up.

My niece was in the basement at the University in a computer lab when the quake struck. She watched huge concrete columns bending and twisting and feared for her life. They held together and she ran outside to the creche where her 2 year old was.

They then faced a 9 kilometer walk home. She was not wearing walking shoes, and the little one was tired of walking. He fell asleep and she carried him most of the way.

It was dark when she reached home and was reunited with her husband. Their rented house has cracks in the walls, and her kitchen cupboards have spilled out on the floor. Her laptop has been smashed and it is necessary for her studies. They do have personal contents insurance and hopefully she will eventually get a replacement but it may take months.

But she is cheerful and happy to be alive and unscathed. They have power now but no water or sewerage. The toileting is the worst part she says. The council will be delivering some 'portaloos' soon, as soon as they become available. More are being brought into the city from overseas. In the meantime they have to be very careful of hygiene.

As I speak to her she is stirring a big pot of stew she is cooking up for relatives of her husbands who are sleeping in their garage and have no power yet - although they have been coping quite well with their barbeque.

Thousands of people have left the city of course, it is really the most sensible thing to do if there are young children and the house is completely ruined.

Christchurch Events

Earthquake news

Photo of Christchurch city taken seconds after the quake.

Help continues to stream in to Christchurch from all over the world. The level of international help is tremendous - there are a total of about 750 overseas Urban Rescue experts now in Christchurch. These include teams from Australia, Japan, Singapore and the US.

But hope is fading for people still trapped in buildings.

Words from our Prime Minister, John Key.

"These deaths are the greatest loss. They remind us that in the end buildings are just buildings, roads are just roads. But people are irreplaceable," said Mr Key. "Know that your humanity is more powerful than any act of Mother Nature."

80 per cent of the city is without reticulated water, 40 per cent of the city without power. Water tankers are bringing in water and people are collecting it at points around the city. There is no sewage in most parts of the city.

A student volunteer army organised by the University of Canterbury Student Association has been gathered via social networking site Facebook to help those suffering in the wake of Tuesday's devastating earthquake in Christchurch.
"We are working closely with Civil Defence in this operation. At this very early stage we are focusing on helping everyday people in their homes in low risk areas with non-life threatening situations," student organiser Sam Johnson says.
Volunteers should arrive at the UCSA car park on Ilam Road between 9am and 10am today and bring shovels, wheelbarrows, gloves, raincoats, sunblock and drink bottles."

U S Aid

This is the first time I can ever remember New Zealand receiving aid from another country. Other than in war time. And we are very grateful for it.

I know that NZ has sent help to the US before - I remember fire fighters were sent once to help with fire fighting in California.

"
>USAID Responds to New Zealand Earthquake

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 21, 2011
OIG Press Office: 202-712-1150
Public Information: 202-712-4810

www.usaid.gov

WASHINGTON, D.C. - In response to the earthquake in New Zealand and upon request from the New Zealand government, the United States is deploying a U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART). The Response Team will include the Los Angeles County (California) Fire Department Urban Search and Rescue team (USAR) to assist with the search and rescue efforts.

The USAR component of the DART will be what is called a "heavy team," bringing more than seventy specialized personnel and all necessary equipment to make live rescues in even the most precarious situations.

"On behalf of the American people, I wish to convey our sympathy, thoughts and prayers to the people of New Zealand who have been affected by this devastating earthquake," said USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah. "We stand ready to assist the government of New Zealand in any way we can."

USAID will continue to provide additional support as needed.

Another earthquake in Christchurch

I have been sitting in front of TV all afternoon, at times in tears, as I watch the people of Christchurch in the South Island, cope with the aftermath of another quake.

A quake of magnitude 6.3 struck just before 1pm this afternoon, at a depth of 5km. This is very shallow and it has done a lot of damage. Sadly there is loss of life, many people trapped, and fires raging. And their beloved Cathedral, an icon in the city, is very badly damaged.

I have heard that our family there are safe, but all have suffered damage to their houses. I have yet to hear from two other family members, one of whom was working in the downtown area today.

We live far away, in the North Island. They are calling for blood donations. Tomorrow I will go and donate, at least its something I can do.

Our heart goes out to our fellow New Zealanders.

The New Zealand Herald has more news.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/

Update:
65 people so far confirmed have died.

The Dotterels (contd)

The dotterels who inhabit 'our beach' have a habit, as dotterels do, of just scratching a hole in the sand at roughly the high tide mark and laying their eggs in it. No cleverly crafted nest for them. There the mother sits with great determination day after day until her eggs hatch. Sometimes a storm will blow sand all over her, or a very high tide will wash her and the eggs away.

The chicks are so very cute, like bumble bees with long legs. They mostly have to fend for themselves. Although the parents do hover around and keep an eye on things, they don't 'herd' their brood and keep them close like a duck or hen will.

And therein lies the problem. Firstly, their nests are in very public places, where people like to walk their dogs. And dogs will do what dogs love to do - chase anything that runs. The little birds are at such a very vulnerable stage - the mother on the eggs, and the babies. Once they can fly it is fine, they can get away.

A dotterel watch group has been formed and along with DOC (Dept of Conservation) they have put several measures in place in an attempt to protect the birds. Firstly they have fenced off the nesting areas, but only a single strand wire is permitted.

The council has passed a by-law which bans dogs from the river mouth area and large signs have been erected stating this. Dogs are allowed on the rest of the beach before 7am and after 7pm. People can walk anywhere they like, apart from inside the few roped off nesting places.

This summer I helped the local dotterel watch group to keep an eye on the estuary point area (the second picture - you can see a roped off nesting area in the distance).

If someone came along with a dog we would politely point out the signs to them and request that they remove their dog to another area of the beach (they have 99% of the beach left to exercise their dogs - the beach is at least 3 kilometers or more long).

Some people were great - they saw the signs and just turned around, others stopped and chatted to us,read the information panels about the birds, then went off elsewhere.

But there were some unpleasant reactions. Some reacted very rudely. I was sworn at, told off in no uncertain terms to 'get a life' etc etc. Several people had their dog off the lead and the dog was chasing the birds! Some very firmly said 'I choose to ignore the signs so what are you going to do about it!' And one man had his children with him - what a terrible message to be passing on to the next generation.

All in all the experience has quite altered my faith in mankind. The local people were fine, it was the holiday makers who felt they had the God given right to take their dogs wherever they chose.

I have nothing against dogs by the way! Just the owners who do not take responsibility for them.

More on this topic later

The New Zealand Dotterel or Red-breasted Plover (Charadrius obscurus) is an endangered species and it is found only in certain areas of New Zealand. Its Māori names include Tūturiwhatu, Pukunui, and Kūkuruatu. It is related to the Eurasian dotterel.

New Zealand Dotterels are shorebirds and are usually found on sandy beaches and sandspits or feeding on tidal estuaries.

Dotterels are nearing extinction with about 1300 northern dotterels, and approximately 75 or so southern dotterels.

Parents lay eggs in the spring and summer. They nest on beaches above the high tide mark, and the nest is just a shallow hole dug in the ground, not made of twigs like a nest in a tree. The chicks hatch about 28 days after the eggs have been laid. Because the nests are on the ground, chicks can walk the day they hatch and can usually fly within 6-8 weeks.

Photo and article from WIkipedia

The summer

It has been a great summer, with a mixed bag of weather events with two cyclones dumping some rain and windy days, the many warm and sunny days too, but we take it all in our stride. Good to have the rain mid summer to keep the vege garden producing.

We had a lot of fun at the beach this year with our Grandchildren now well past the age of eating sand and now old enough to enjoy the water. Body boarding was a good challenge with the waves just the right height for learners. When they got tired of the surf beach or it was too windy there was always the river estuary and riding on the wave skiis.

And digging great holes in the sand and barricading them to attempt to hold back the tide occupied them every afternoon. Of course its an exercise in futility and the tide always won!