Shake, rattle and roll

Oh boy!  What a night!

I was barely in bed just after midnight when I felt a wee tremor - not unusual in this part of the world.  When the wobble added a bigger jolt I remember thinking 'Ooh - this is a bit bigger than a wobble'.  I sat upright, waiting for it to pass.  Instead, it rocked and rolled more..........the lampshade was swinging , the door rocked open, small items on the dresser are rattling, I could hear the house creaking and groaning.  By now I'm out of bed, putting on my ugg-boots and dressing gown and ready to head to the safety of a doorway.  The walk across the bedroom floor feels like I'm drunk and I stumble to put one foot accurately in front of the other.  I remember my emergency plan, hatched many years ago........don't hang around in the house by the large (floor-to-ceiling) window..........get out!  I continue my drunken stumble through the house and onto the lawn where I stand and watch my house heave.  And then it slows to a rock.......and slows still more to a gentle shudder and then it's quiet again.

About 40-50 seconds I reckon, from the first rumble to the last.  With heart pouding I head back indoors, get online and wait for the reports to start coming in.

A 6.6 quake centred about 150 kms south of here near Hanmer Springs. Within hours the strength has been regraded to a 7.5.  That's massive..........but it erupted miles away from here......nearer the epicentre it must have been monstrous.

The reports are slow coming in and my heart is still pounding.  There's no evident damage in my house so I head back to bed.......another rumble, but way smaller........I eventually drift off to sleep.

Up on the alarm at 6.00.  Phone call from G - school is closed today so engineers can check for damage.......I turn on the TV and watch the disaster as it spills into my living room. Kaikoura is cut off - slips cover the only road in and the only road out.  One slip is covering the entrance to one of the road tunnels.  There's a report of a truck driver missing........not heard from since 12.03 last night when he was south of Kaikoura.  My mind starts to worry that he could be trapped in one of the tunnels.  There are 2 confirmed fatalities.  There are no images from Kaikoura - connections are all broken.  Kaikoura is an island, detached from the rest of the country.  I'm glued to the TV..........then tiredness gets the better of me and I sleep for 2 hours.

My house guests arrive mid-afternoon from Blenheim, thankful to be out of the area that was still shaking.  They're a lovely couple who are on holiday from Central Otago - an area which the quake didn't radiate to, unlike most of the rest of the country.

An exhausting, extraordinary day............and one that I'm so pleased mum will never know about.

Camera Club in the evening was an interesting affair with at leat 4 rumbles during the 2 hours we were together.  I guess things will rumble for a while longer until the earth settles down again.

My heart goes out to all those people in Kaikoura who are at the centre of this disaster.  With no images yet and few outsiders making it in, it's hard to know how things are, but pointers are indicating it's going to be pretty bad.........