My story, December 23

I live in Christchurch, New Zealand. On the 23rd of December we had 2 major earthquakes in the afternoon, they were 6.3 and 6.0 in size.

In most countries, or even at a different time here they would have stopped the city for days at least, possibly weeks and yet all the malls were open the day after. The world just ignored these two quakes.

We cannot ignore these quakes though.

I was at work when the first one happened and we evacuated the customers because they get annoying. I had 3 sixteen year old girls that I was in charge of and they'd been through all the other earthquakes we'd had. They were used to them but it still upsets them. It upsets everybody. I was still at work, cleaning up when the second quake happened. Although it was smaller on rictor scale it was more violent. It was shallower and even closer and threw everybody into the air.

I went straight home, along roads at 16.30 that are normally bumper to bumper and they were empty. It was strange. The entire time I was going home I'm wondering about the state of my house, and what the ground around my place had done. I was wondering if I'd have to spend that afternoon digging silt out of the shed and the house and piling it on the streets for the digger crews to pickup. I had already heard from my girlfriend and knew that she was fine before I left work, but I tried calling later again to find out the state of the house and if any bridges were closed. I tried and tried and tried and could not contact her.

I finally got home to find the front door open, my girlfriends car in the driveway, with no silt thankfully and my girlfriend nowhere to be seen. She turned up about 15-20 minutes later and had been having a lovely chat with the neighbours.

My plans for Christmas where changed because the house we were going to go to had a river 15cm deep all the way around of mud. They had a hill 1m high in their backyard that appeared in minutes. It never broke the surface either, so it cannot be attacked with the spades and wheelbarrows.

I don't know why I'm writing this, I feel somebody should read my story of what has happened recently. If you want to know more, ask, and I will tell you more of my story. It goes all the way back to September 2010.

As I've been writing this we've had another earthquake which was only a 3.6 but it's epicenter was only 14km away from where I am currently.

The last year has really made me rethink what is important in my life.