Two years on

It has been just over two years now since we were rudely awoken at 4.35am in the morning of 4th of September 2010 at the start of the Cantberbury earthquake sequence. How do I feel now, two years on?

I would say that on the whole, I’m pretty good. I don’t register a change in heart rate when a bus or truck rumbles down our street, nor when the washing machine spin cycle shakes our house. My ears do prick up at the sound of thunder or a plane flying overhead though, but once the source of the sound is established as either a plane or thunder, my ears return to normal.

There are places in the world I’ll probably never visit as a direct result of my time in Christchurch, like San Francisco, Wellington, Japan, Chile, Vancouver and Indonesia. Most of New Zealand freaks me out now too. The geology is just a bit too exciting for me.

People sometimes ask me whether I’d ever move back to Christchurch and the answer is definitely no. Christchurch is very close to the actual plate boundary which manifests as the alpine fault and runs diagonally through the south island. It has not ruptured since European settlement here so no-one really knows what to expect, except that it will probably happen in the next 20-50 years. On this, the time frame, they are almost certain. Geologists have said it will feel similar to the first earthquake, on September 4th 2010, because although bigger in magnitude, it will also be further away. I’ve been there and felt that, and nah, I think I’ll skip that experience again, thanks. I’ll go for floods or some other natural disaster instead.