Saturday 4th September 2010

4.30am Argh!!! I don't know how or why I woke up but I woke up yelling to Mum (who didn't reply straight away), Caroline yelled back and yelled get up, we stood in the door way together - for what seemed like ages while the house shook furiously around us. It was dark, the power had turned off, by now Mum and Dad were up.  Caroline started hunting for a torch (or some type of light), Mum was yelling to put your shoes on as there were broken things on the floor, Caroline gave me her jandals to wear.  I thought my cellphone would be under my pillow to give light (but it was Saturday and I don't take my phone to bed at the weekend).  Caroline found Dad's cellphone in the Kitchen and we used this to help find a torch in the high cupboard in the kitchen - which didn't have much charge left in the batteries, so I somehow found my cellphone and then my camera.  I took the batteries out of my camera and put these in the torch (as I knew these where well charged), we then found other torches (the rechargeable one - in my bedroom), we also found candles - eventually!  We looked out the curtains in the kitchen to see if the neighbours were ok.  Mum rang to check my Aunty and Uncle were ok (they were but were very shaken up), she couldn't get through to my other Aunty (so i rang my cousin in London who said that my Aunty was ok). We all seemed to need to go to the toilet and discovered that the water was not going, and who knows where the sewer was now going.  We all went outside (Mum had seen the power lines arc) carefully.  There was lots of traffic on the road, one car stopped and said did we have a cellphone and if so could we please ring the council and ask them to turn the water off as the mains were broken and they were flooding down the other end of the road.  About now Caroline went to check on the neighbours across the road (they were all ok too).    By the time Caroline came back across the road it was as though there was a river coming up the street.  I looked up the phone book and tried to ring the council number to get the water turned off - I either got the answer machine or an overloaded message.  So I rang my cousin in London and asked if she could try ringing and keep ringing the council and ask them to turn the water off as we were flooding! and my cellphone was running out of charge so I couldn't keep trying to ring them.  During this time there were aftershocks - which sent me running and screaming for the doorway.  Dad and Caroline found some buckets in the backyard and filled them with water from the street - the water was very dirty and at first we couldn't tell if the floating things in the water were sewage or bark (phew they were bark) so that we could use this water to flush the toilet.  My cousin rang back to say that it was a 7.4 earthquake and that she had talked to the fire service who said they were busy at the moment dealing with buildings that had fallen down in town and that this was there priority at the moment.  While we were outside the man delivering the newspaper handed us Saturday's newspaper - he wasn't sure how much further he would get delivering the papers today.  Everyone decided to go back to bed as there was not much we could do till the sun came up. I didn't think this was a good idea as i thought by the time we woke up the water would be coming through our house.  They thought they would go back to sleep, but there was not much sleep to be had in our house from about 5 - 6am when the first light comes for the day.  I shared Caroline's bed, there were lots of aftershocks while we lay in bed. I was extremely scared! (and that is an understatement - my body wouldn't stop shaking - and still won't and i'm writing this on Thursday night after the quake).  At first light about 6.30am - 7am we got up and looked outside and to my surprise and relief the water had gone.  We went to look outside, the road was really muddy and there was bark on the road.  As I didn't want to be left alone, I followed everyone outside to the street.  There are lots of cracks on the footpaths and road.  Other people are out on the road too, we walked down the road - one house had lost two brick chimneys which were now lying on the ground in front of the house.  The manhole in the middle of one of the intersections had risen and was now a bump in the road, there were also holes in the road.  While we were out there, there was another aftershock - which sent us moving away from under the power lines.  We went home for breakfast and to listen to the radio.  We had weetbix with hot milk boiled on the gas hob - i had checked under the bench to see if the pipes looked ok (which to my eyes they did).  We went outside to start cleaning the driveway of all the mud and bark, we then noticed the man at the house on the corner had water so we went down to ask were he got the water from, he said he had his own aquifer and that we could get some water from there, I took down lots of buckets to fill with water (cleaner water than the buckets we currently had on the terrace).  We took water to the neighbours across the road.  My friend who had water brought us bottles of water.  Mum had seen someone carrying back milk from the shop, so i went down to buy some, wow! if you didn't know where to find milk in the shop you wouldn't have known where to go.  There were bottles all over the floor that had fallen out of the fridges and the shop was darkish as there wasn't any power.  I was pleased to leave with my 4 x 2 litre bottles of milk.  My cousin came over (by bike) late morning and we all walked around to look at my new house - which looked ok - one door just wouldn't shut again after we opened it.  After lunch we went to look down the street and this is when you don't realise how lucky you are, down the other end of the street there is sand everywhere, houses have sunk, and or had volcano type mud things appear in there houses or backyards - this is liquefaction.  Lots of people are digging out the sand and placing it on the side of the road.  We return home and then go around to try and fix the door on my house (which we did).  My Aunt, Uncle and Cousin come to visit - they leave before it gets to dark - as we still had no power or water and are not sure where the sewer is going so are flushing the toilet sparingly.  We have tea by candle light - there are several aftershocks which send me running for the doorway, I could quite happily live under the doorway for the rest of my life.  We go to bed at 8pm as it is very dark, but have little sleep as the aftershocks continue at about 2 per hour throughout the night (again i sleep with Caroline in her bed, as I'm too scared to sleep in my own bed.  I sleep with the torch attached to my arm and my phone in the other hand and the radio under the pillow).  Today our cat Jack went missing, he ran out of the cat door after the quake and we have not seen him since.

Friday 3rd September 2010

Went to school.  We had a trip to the movies to see "Shrek Forever After" in 3D at Reading Cinema at The Palms.  After school went to the rugby Canterbury vs Bay of Plenty, it was very cold at the rugby (so we sat higher up in the stand), Canterbury won 28 - 9.