We knew that New Zealand was prone to earthquakes and was on the infamous Pacific Ring of Fire but in nearly five years we had felt nothing. In the early hours of September 4th we finally felt a tremor. And what a shake! The 7.1 quake was centred about 40km from us and was a hell of an experience. We were jolted awake and the violence of the shaking left us in no doubt immediately what was happening. The power went off straight away and as it was 4.30 in the morning we were left stumbling around the house in complete darkness trying to grab the kids. It is susprisingly difficult to negotiate doorways in the dark when you can barely stand from the shaking and the doorways are moving targets! But a few bumps and scrapes later we were all together and safe.

Talking to locals the next day it was apparent this was the biggest shake that Christchurch had ever had which was comforting in a way as I wouldn't want to have to go through that too often.

We all came through well and the house initially seemed to have coped pretty well. However, the subsequent aftershocks and the gradual settling of the ground has revealed increasing damage. Our chimney was taken down last week (before nature finished the job with another aftershock) and we are starting to notice tell-tale signs of damage under the house (uneven floorboards, doors not shutting properly) but nothing terminal and we are fully insured so we just have to wait along with the 100,000 other claimants!

We're all pretty amazed at the lack of casualties. In January Haiti had an earthquake of the same magnitude as ours killing over 200,000. The death toll from the Canterbury quake was 0. With that in mind it's a bit hard to complain about some broken bricks and wobbly floorboards.

We didn't take many pictures of the quake damage at the time but there are plenty here: http://www.stuff.co.nz/4095395/Latest-photos-7-1-quake

Here are some of ours:

The two sides of the river moved in different ways during the quake leaving the bridge twisted

Some damage near the river

Cameron in a crack that appeared in the pavement

A Finlay-sized crack in the road

One of the many buildings in the centre of town that had to be demolished

Our chimney after the first aftershock. It gradually got worse over the weeks with each large aftershock