A day of shaking

We awoke at 12.02am this morning to a horrific earthquake, which seem to go on and on.  Our power went out, which also meant we didn't have any water.  We all congregated in the dining room, and gathered our thoughts.  We found a radio that ran on batteries, so we could hear what on earth had happened.  We knew it was major, but didn't realise that it was a 7.5 magnitude major.  At 2am, and after many aftershocks, we headed out to the caravan and boiled the kettle on the gas stove.  It was good to be able to have some hot water to make a hot drink.

We eventually headed back to bed.  Farmerboy got up at 4.40am after setting his alarm on the cellphone, and headed up to the cowshed to see if there was any damaged.  He arrived back at 6am - we still had no power so couldn't milk the cows. 

School was closed so the infrastructure could be checked, so I had the day at home.  Son C had an NCEA exam today, but that was cancelled.  His mark will be assessed from his year's work.

The power eventually came on at 10am, so Farmerboy began milking the cows.  The poor things were so tight and uncomfortable - they would have been pleased to get some of the pressure released from their udders.


Surveying the house this morning, we noticed this sink hole in our back yard.  You probably can't appreciate the depth of it from the photo, but it is deep.  We'll have to get a digger in to fix it, but hopefully that can wait for a few days.

The East Coast of the South Island is completely cut off.  Roads are munted, railway tracks torn completely off the ground and relocated onto what was the road.  Major slips covering roads and buildings and houses demolished.  There have been two known deaths.  It's a disaster, and not what we need so soon after the Christchurch Earthquakes.

Lets hope mother nature calms down soon.