A Kiwi Kwake

CHRISTCHURCH
4.30 AM SATURDAY 4 SEPTEMBER 2010 AND 7.1

The Pak n Save warehouse

Not often we see soldiers deployed on our streets. At least they are not armed.

The earthquake skateboarder.

Night time descends. They had pictures of the main centres on the Weather forecast at news time and Christchurch looked like North Korea. No lights.

The Deans homestead, 154 years old

Earthquake: Christchurch. I woke at what was according to my bedside clock was 4.38 AM Saturday morning - it seems it is 3 minutes fast - to a rocking side to side motion as if in a small boat. No noise and only a very slight aftershock. Hmmmm - Christine slept through it (as did Joe and a few others I know) so I thought I would wait a while and see if there were any other aftershocks.

As nothing happened I went back to sleep not thinking that it would be centered elsewhere.

I had forgotten all about it when Christine said there had been a big one in Christchurch. I then recalled what had happened and told her what time etc but said it wasn't too bad.

But of course that was us - not down South.

What a mess; but what good luck no real injuries. Friends have two daughters in the city and they got woken up by phone just after to be told that they were alright. A bit of damage to one place with the other OK.

One of the biggest at 7.1 but the luck was that it was early morning and most people were asleep and not at work.

Insurance: Again simple. Make insurance to the Rateable Value compulsory. We will now have all the bludgers who don't have insurance wanting a payout and the PM has said we must help. Again the useless get assisted.

Civil Defence: The reaction this time seems to have been excellent although they were lucky with low personal damage and the weather. Mayor Bob Parker seems to be on the ball.

In the coming Local Body Elections the local MP Jim Anderton is also standing for the Mayoralty. He wants to do two jobs as he intends to stay an MP. Talk about double dipping and how the hell can he do both jobs. If being the Mayor of our second biggest city and being an MP is not considered a full time job (and I believe they are) then cut their pay to that of a part-timer.

We will end with something a bit more pleasant - the 3 Musketeers or more likely the Terrible Trio.

This was taken at Easter this year.