No rest for the people of Christchurch, New Zealand

I feel so very sorry for the people of Christchurch. The stress they live under is unimaginable.

I was talking to my cousin a few nights ago, he and his family live in a small town close to Christchurch. Over 300 houses in their town are to be demolished as they are no longer safe. One elderly couple had committed suicide last week as they could no longer cope with the stress of their house ruined and the continuing shakes.

And just yesterday they have had another 16 quakes, one or two strong enough to cause more damage.


(Photo and article below taken from the New Zealand Herald)


'Explosive' aftershocks hit weary city'
A series of explosive aftershocks near central Christchurch collapsed walls, trapped people in buildings and cut power yesterday.

Jittery residents relived the scare of September 4's 7.1 magnitude earthquake as a large jolt woke them at 2am.

A shallow quake at 10.30am cleared stores filled with Boxing Day shoppers.

The mid-morning aftershock was 4.9 magnitude, the largest since mid-November.

By 7.30 last night there had been 16 aftershocks - nine of which were 3.5 magnitude or above.

The latest aftershocks were a magnitude 4.4 quake at a shallow depth of 3 kilometres just after midnight today followed by magnitude 3.0 aftershock at a depth of 6 kilometres, at 2am both located close to the centre of Christchurch.

PS I have just looked on the Geonet site which details earthquakes in the NZ area, and have found that we have had one too - at 3.00am this morning! 30k north east of here, 5.4 which is quite large, but at a depth of 210km which is quite deep and not so likely to cause damage.

Garden Blues

I love hydrangeas. At the moment they are in full flower, and will remain so until late summer.

I love way you can have blues and purples and all shades in between on each bush, and the white ones have tinges of blue or pink.

They are regarded here as a bit old fashioned, an 'old ladies' flower. So be it! I can live with that.

The bach /pron.batch/ - a cottage or Holiday home

Bach (pronounced Batch, with the alternative of Crib in the southern part of New Zealand) is the name given in New Zealand to structures akin to small, often very modest holiday homes or beach houses. They are an iconic part of New Zealand history and culture, especially in the middle of the 20th century, where they symbolized the beach holiday lifestyle that was becoming more accessible to the middle class.

"Bach" was originally short for bachelor pad, but actually they often tended to be a family holiday home. An alternative theory for the origination of the word is that "bach" in Welsh means small.

Baches started to became very popular in the 1950s, as better roads and more available cars allowed family beach holidays, often to the same beach every year, and hence to the construction of a bach in that spot. One humorous definition of the bach, is "something you built yourself, on land you don't own, out of materials you borrowed or stole.

Early baches rarely enjoyed amenities like connections to the water and electricity grid or indoor toilets. They were furnished basically, often with second hand furniture.

In more recent times the basic bach has been replaced by the modern "holiday house", more substantial, more expensive (reflecting increasing affluence, and vastly increased coastal land values) and usually professionally built (due to stricter building codes).

Another important change has been the subdivision of coastal land, with increasing numbers of residents and visitors, bringing traffic, cafes, mobile phone coverage, craft shops and other conveniences to what were originally empty beaches and bush-filled gullies. Some bach-dotted beaches in the 1950s have today become suburban areas.
(from wikipedia)

Beach Bunny tails.

These are really weeds, but I love them and at our beach house I deliberately cultivate them. After all, all plants were weeds once. When it rains they droop.

The children love to pick them and put them into a vase, they can be dyed for flower arrangements, used for collage work, in works of art - their uses are endless. I like to look at them in the garden.

Along with marram grass, pingao (a native bright orange beach grass)and of course our New Zealand Christmas tree - the Pohutukawa, they spell long hot summers by the beach.

The pohutukawa is pictured on my header.

Planting spree!

In the last week or two I have planted:

*one nectarine tree,
*three blueberry bushes
*two guava trees,
*one viburnum shrub
*sweet peas
*climbing beans
*one cocktail tomato plant
*one corgette plant
*three rows of radishes,
*parsley
*basil
*strawberry plants
*sage
*Gloriosa lillies
*ten lavender plants
*four fuschias
*20 hedge plants (griselinia)

and shifted:

*two hydrangeas
*one apple tree (to the orchard)
*one hibiscus
*several clumps of dahlia bulbs

and repotted:

*lots and lots of bromeliads - too many to count.

and sprinkled in the wild flower area:

*poppy seeds
*aquilegia seeds,(granny bonnets)
*calendula seeds,
*honesty seeds
all saved from last year or gathered from friend's gardens.

And of course there has been the general garden tidying, digging of vege garden, clearing out compost bins, tending to the worm farm etc etc.

And its just the start of the summer season!

I wonder why I don't have time to blog?

Some welcome colour in the garden

More Quilt news

The story of the quilt I made my Granddaughter, as well as a photo, has appeared in the latest issue of the NZ Quilter magazine.

Needless to say I am quite pleased about this! It is only the second quilt I have ever made.

You will need to enlarge the photo to be able to read the article.

Clean Up

The trauma continues for the people of the Canterbury region with more than 300 aftershocks, some of them very strong. In fact strong enough in a few cases to cause more damage.

Here is a link to some interviews with some children with their views on the earthquake(s).


There are some wonderful stories of the generosity of neighbours and others - people turning up with a spade and helping in the cleanup, checking on the elderly and providing for them with company and baking, and businesses lending out their machinery and time without payment to help.

Canterbury University students have organised themselves into a workforce with shovels and are helping many homeowners to clean their backyards and driveways of silt, sand and rubble.

And then of course there are a few tales of burglaries and looting.

A crisis brings out the best in people and unfortunately sometimes also the worst.

Google Maps map of the quake and the aftershocks. They are colour coded according to the day with red being last Saturday, teal Sunday, yellow Monday,green Tuesday, purple Wednesday,and pink today (so far)




View Christchurch earthquake: Where the land shook in a larger map

Quake update

Christchurch is now experiencing gale force winds and heavy rain is predicted to add to the misery of the quake damaged city!

However the clean up has begun. I was talking to my cousin who lives in Kaiapoi and he has been out and about helping neighbours to secure their homes and make them watertight. However they are all traumatised by the event and shiver when another aftershock occurs.

There is an interesting account here of a young lad who fell out the second storey of his house and survived with very little injury!

We did not feel the quake here in the Bay of Plenty which is in the upper half of the North Island. Quakes are always a possibility in our region with the last destructive one occurring in 1987 at Edgecumbe which is an hour away south east of here. However we have an active volcano on our doorstep. White island sits just out there off shore continually smoking away and occasionally spewing more than steam!


Extract from this morning's NZ Herald.

"Parts of central Christchurch were being reopened, but weary residents face more disruption as schools, public buildings and many businesses remain closed.

Late yesterday, 60,000 people were still without water supplies and 10,000 were without power. About 100 water mains were broken, and only a quarter of them had been repaired.

Schools and early childhood centres in Christchurch City and Selwyn and Waimakariri Districts have been told to stay closed until at least Wednesday following concerns from the Chief Medical Officer of Health.

All non-essential procedures at Christchurch Hospital have been cancelled, as have jury trials due to start today.

Much of the hard-hit central city remains cordoned off, but engineers have made progress inspecting about 500 damaged buildings.

Civil Defence officials are urging visitors to stay away for at least a week, unless absolutely necessary, as the city tries to come to terms with its shattered infrastructure.

One Kaiapoi resident said a constant flow of sightseers was distressing residents, and urged people to stay away.

Most public buildings and schools remain off limits for at least the next two days, under the Civil Defence Act. A curfew is in place in Christchurch from 7pm to 7am, and police said the central city was still dangerous.

Aftershocks from the quake are expected to be felt for several weeks.

The weather seems likely to add to the misery. The MetService predicted winds of up to 130km/h would hit many parts of Canterbury. Those winds are expected to be replaced later today by a cold southerly and rain.

The rain may well force further evacuations, especially of residents near the Waimakariri River, where stopbanks were badly damaged by the quake.

Civil Defence Minister John Carter said safety was the most important factor for emergency staff, who were contacting elderly people to ensure they were being looked after.

"We are aware that there could be significant rain up in the Alps and that the [Waimakariri] River may swell over the next couple of days."

Mr Carter said Civil Defence was working to rebuild the stopbanks and set up an evacuation plan should it be needed.

If people were evacuated, they would probably go to welfare centres set up around the region to help hundreds whose homes are too damaged to stay in.

About 250 people have spent the past two nights at makeshift Red Cross centres at Linwood College, Burnside High School and Addington Raceway.

The Salvation Army has fed about 1000 people since Saturday.

Today, work will continue around the region to restore essential services and assess damage caused by the quake, which has made headlines around the world.

The Shaky isles

Photo from Geonet - link here.

"A magnitude 7.1 earthquake occurred at 4:36 am on September 4, the epicentre was 40 km west of Christchurch city, and the depth of the quake was at 10 km."

I have posted about earthquakes in New Zealand before - they are a fact of life here, we all live with the possibility of a major quake happening at any time.

The people of Christchurch are counting their blessings that not one person was killed, there are two people with serious injuries and many minor injuries. An earthquake of this magnitude (similar to the one recently in Haiti) can often cause more destruction and loss of life.

The time of the earthquake meant that most people were at home and many in bed, not on the streets, in the business areas or at workplaces, schools etc. While there has been destruction of homes and other buildings, roads, sewerage systems etc, our very strict building earthquake codes have made many of our buildings in a good position to withstand a good 'shake'and although damaged many are not 'totalled'.

I have several relatives living in Christchurch and thankfully all are safe and well, but one has quite extensive damage to her house. They are all feeling very very nervous with all the aftershocks that are occurring day and night, over thirty in all and some quite strong. (Click on the map above to see the sites of the major shock and all the aftershocks)More information here and here.