Getting back to normal after the quake

On February 22nd Christchurch was hit by another big earthquake. Although we were used to them after nearly 6 months of aftershocks this was bigger, close to the city, very shallow, very violent and much, much worse than anything before.

But despite taking a few hours to all find each other and get home we were all safe and uninjured. Sadly many others weren't so fortunate. Christchurch is a small city and over the next few weeks as more and more names of the dead were released, although fortunately none of our friends were among them, we inevitably heard of people we knew that had lost friends or family members. It brought it home how this was not some anonymous tragedy on the TV but a huge event that will have repercussions for years to come.

Our house suffered a little more damage to add to that from the September quake. Thanks to Finlay we were put on a priority list so we got our chimney fixed in March so we have heating going into winter. The rest of the house will be fixed in the coming months but there is nothing critical so there's no rush. Thousands of households in Christchurch are staring at a long, cold winter without decent heating. Again, we have been the lucky ones.

I'm glad to say the boys have been very resilient and have come through very well. The older two are back at school and Finlay is really enjoying his new preschool after the one he was in was damaged.

And they've been helping out with the clean up.

Finlay clearing up some silt from the liquifaction


Ewan repairing the sewers