Julia's Birds, Bugs, Bikes and Boats Blog: Shake Rattle and Roll

Whew - superficial damage and jarred nerves the main result of the latest earthquake

We were out of Wellington, in New Plymouth celebrating the success of Wellington Brass which had just won the National Band A Grade Championships for the first time in thirty three years. A walk along the waterfront before dinner seemed a good way to fill in an hour. We parked the car and were about to get out when for some reason our car started to jump about on its own. The first thought was that someone was shaking it, but when we looked across the road and saw various poles attached to a nearby restaurant dancing away rhythmically by themselves we realised it was an earthquake.
I checked on my phone and yes, a 6.8 (later reduced to 6.5) earthquake had struck off the cast of Wellington and given the city a good rattle. We certainly felt it three hundred kilometres away.

We had left Wellington three days earlier and had heard a significant earthquake had occurred shortly after our departure. I had kept up to date with subsequent shakes through my phone app connecting me to Geonet and had presumed things were gradually settling down. But no, they were building up for Sunday's effort.

Thank goodness no-one was significantly hurt and damage to buildings were in the main superficial.
We decided to return to our quaky home on Monday as planned. After all earthquakes are a regular occurrence in Wellington.
My ancestor Douglas Mary McLane was around during the major 1855 earthquake. She owned several properties in and around Thorndon built by her sons and repairs cost sixty four pounds.

Douglas Mary McKain

That earthquake threw up some handy land. Wellington's down town is mainly built on it and the number two highway from Wellington to the Hutt is constructed on it. Swampy land became usable and the Basin Reserve was no longer a lagoon and was reconsigned as a cricket ground. The future airport became available. So Wellington has been created by earthquakes and is built around a fairly large fault line. I have heard the city described as the twist in a towel that is being wrung. On one side the land is sliding under a plate and on the other it is sliding over the plate thus creating constant tension.

As we arrived back we saw a large sign suggesting that people not go into the Central Business District as they were still checking out buildings and cleaning up. In the suburbs all was calm and our house was still parked where it should be and had not been shaken off the hill. Inside a clock had fallen off a wall as had a couple of ornaments but that was it. No cracks, no shifting of the building off the piles.

Today the city is to be back in business and everyone is to get on with life...until the next one. In the mean time we will change over our emergency water bottles and make sure we have enough food for a few days and something to cook it on.