Saturday 18 June 2011

Shaky town

It's fantastic being in Christchurch spending time with Noah, Tim and Sarah. Not so fantastic waking up to a 4.4 earthquake, a shallow one that went on for ages. The hard shaking was okay, the lingering feeling of being on top of jelly was not so comforting. There were a few today, I only felt one other, but it gives me an idea of what it's like to live this day in, day out.

We went for a drive through the streets, around the red zone and over to Lyttleton. Lyttleton has been hard hit and many of the places where I used to love to eat have gone. The roads were rough, the tunnel a scary place to travel through. This place will never look the same again, everywhere I look there are buildings on a lean, in a pile on the road or gone completely. I'm not sure how many times I cried out in shock at the state of this place.

I can only be very thankful that my family are all safe. There is more to come and I hope that it gets no worse than it is. Sarah and I watched a documentary this morning called 5 Days in the Red Zone I hope the link works for you as it shows the true horror and destruction of that day in February that terrified us all, at home and overseas, as we felt and watched the the situation unfold.

On a better note, we had some fun tonight with this website. Doggelganger lets you take a photo of yourself, webcam required, then matches you to the dog that looks most like you. The dogs are ones in need of a home, the site's aim is to get those making the match to adopt the dog they match. Easy when you get a cute one like I did, a young German Shepherd/labrador cross. It's actually heaps of fun on a wet Saturday night. 

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