Food for thought.

Sailing through the night and a little after sunrise we passed through the Banks Peninsula, arriving at the Akaroa and Littleton harbour’s. The harbour’s were created many centuries ago by the eruption of two seperate volcanos. This is the second day our ship has spent the day inn an extinct volcano crater which is not unusual for New Zealand (NZ). Sadly today’s blip is about the reactive nature of NZ’s geology. In 2011 an earthquake hit the city of Christchurch, the blip is representative of many thousands of buildings in the city. The church stands extremely supported against collapse, behind the church stands a substantial motel complex. Neither have been used since the quake because of structural failure. Frequently the media portrays such disasters occurring over several days or until the next big story comes along. I learnt two things from today. One, the disaster of 2011is a long way from being fixed, the population of the city is less now than it was seven years ago. Two, the city which lays on two seperate fault lines may not have seen the last of earthquakes. The city’s founder in 1848 was Mr John Robert Godley, he was a proud Englishman who’s Alma Mata was Christ Church, Oxford. Hence almost all the city streets have an English origin.
Additional photo, if you stand in the middle of the treeless plane called the Nullarbor and look in ant direction, all you can see is ground cover no higher than 300 mm as shown in photo. If you turn to the north as shown in photo two, the view changes, the welcome sigh sight of the Nullarbor Roadhouse is a welcome sight to travellers, the fog is magnificent. 20 th September, ten more days to get home.
P.s. please accept my apology for not replying over the last week, the cost of internet access is prohibitive and the speeds are almost dialup speeds. I will respond when back on land. Cheers Mal.