Christchurch Rocks

Last week there was yet another big earthquake in Christchurch. We all feel so helpless when we see those who had just finished the hard work clearing up liquifaction that pours through every little crevice, and turns their sections and roads into a messy, muddy, unsavoury place, have to go through it all again. Some are resigned, others barely holding up.This is all just too much.

It is with so much sadness we see the beautiful historic stone buildings that were the hall mark of Christchurch, lying in crumbled heaps of stone and debris. The stunning Rose Window from the front of the Cathedral has gone....smashed to the ground.It was one they had hoped to save and reinstall when the Cathedral was rebuilt. Hard to know if this will happen now. If it does.... it will be a long way off.

Yet 80% of the city has been relatively unscathed. Friends were up last weekend, and they have always had water and power, and had no damage whatsoever to their house, in an older area of the city.

I think now, it is not knowing just when the next quake will be, and what new fault line will be exposed that is getting to people. The aftershocks that follow are hard for those of us elsewhere to even begin to imagine. They are constant and violent.

While the scale of the clean up and restoration is huge, we all feel for those who are still waiting to be paid for months of work. There has to be a way to pay these people so they can carry on. So many tradespeople are going to need to be brought into the city as they get into rebuilding.

There are many areas where it is pretty clear you could not rebuild...because the same problems occur every time they have a major jolt. Nature's warnings must be heeded.

We all have the people of Christchurch in our thoughts....and look forward to the day when the ground settles and they can go about restoring the city to it's former glory.A project that will take be years in the making.