22nd February - A Devastating Day for New Zealand

As usual I spent the morning pottering in the house with the usual sojourn to the local coffee shop. Carolyn came home at lunchtime and we went out in the car to Port Waikato. The Waikato River is the main river running through North Island, and is huge. Extremely wide in places and very dangerous in others. The river has claimed many lives. It was a very pretty journey through lovely scenery and bush. The Port itself is nothing but a commune of houses mainly favoured, I think, by second home owners and hippies. We couldn't even get a cup of tea there! It is very remote.

Here are a couple of pictures of the beautiful beach there:




And here are some pics of the river itself:


It was while we were out enjoying ourselves that we heard on the car radio of an 'aftershock' in Christchurch. We didn't know then how devastating it was. We meandered home through beautiful countryside during which I received a text message from Clare's friend, Georgie, who lives in Christchurch, saying that she was OK, at home safely but with no electricity. We then began to realise that it was quite serious. We put the TV on as soon as we got in and the first thing I saw and heard was that Christchurch Cathedral was in ruins. We just couldn't believe it. The news coverage was continuous and we watched it for a long time trying to take in what we were viewing. It is just awful especially as the city was just beginning to recover from the September earthquake last year.

Clare and Dave are due to fly to Christchurch on 11th March to spend a holiday with Georgie, and Terry and I are due to join them there on 19th to celebrate Clare's birthday on the 20th. I am really hoping that we can all continue with our plans and that Christchurch will be 'open for visitors' by then. We can only wait and see...

A truly sad day and my thoughts are with the victims, their relatives and the survivors who must be severely traumatised.