videoSpunge

Expect aftershocks for some months 'they' said after the 'big one' on Sept 4th 2010. 

On 22nd Feb 2011, some 5 months later we were in a chip shop in New Brighton (the hopefully named beachside town to the east of Christchurch) when the real 'big one' hit. The wife was smarter and quicker than me... she leapt away from the plate glass shop window and shouted at us to do the same. Trouble was, for my daughter jayne and I, the ground was wobbling so bad at that point that we just could not stand up. 20 seconds or so later (lived at some accelerated sense of perception that made it fell like 30 minutes) it was over.. at least the ground shaking part!

The poor Asian ladies serving fish and chips were devastated... being a bit slow, I thought this an overreaction and believed they must have been scalded by the boiling oil in the fryers.. I was ready to leap over the counter to splash cold water or whatever but they were ok in that sense but in fact were in total fear for their kids at the nearby school... even so one lady took the trouble to handover some guys order, despite his protests and insisted that we take a refund on our order. 

Outside in the main New Brighton shopping street I soon saw that my feeling for the scale of the quake was way off. The streets were full of pale, terrified people. The small church we had been near just minutes ago was teetering on total collapse. The converted cinema building just around the corner had littered the road for a considerable distance with huge pieces of lethal masonry. 

Sadly, there are heaps of stories infinitely more stirring than our experiences.. more on this personal experience if you are interested....