Shakedown street

I had planned to talk a little about how we’re adjusting (well- Kelly still really likes her job and Hopscotch is making more friends at school and has started throwing out a few Kiwiisms now and then, though no sign of any accent yet), things we’ve done (Guy Fawkes fireworks, visiting the Marine Education Centre to see their octopus…) the cost of things (gas is expensive as you’d expect, if you shop at Whole Foods you’ll be used to grocery shopping here) and other odds and ends.

But instead, last night we felt our first real earthquake here and it turns out it was a big one. New Zealand lies on the Ring of Fire around the Pacific Ocean and is a subduction zone where one crustal plate is slipping beneath another. As such, there’s lots of exciting geology in the country – volcanoes, geysers and hot springs, and earthquakes. In fact, there’s a fairly major fault that goes right under downtown Wellington. Last night around midnight there was large quake about 120 miles south of here on the South Island. I woke up to what I thought was a really strong wind, but pretty quickly realized there was none. As it got stronger it dawned on me that it was an earthquake and Kelly and I jumped out of bed and ran into Hop’s room. We could feel the house shaking back and forth and hear things banging in the garage. All told it went on for about a minute or two, and from how long it lasted I knew if had to be a big one somewhere. By the time we made it to Hop’s room it was already dissipating, and she rolled over and went back to sleep almost right away. The alert was sent to our phones letting us know it was a 7.8, making it the third biggest to hit the country in the last 100 years.

Our neighbors stopped by the next morning just to make sure we were ok and told us it was the biggest one they’ve felt in their 40 years of living in Wellington, so luckily it’s not something we can expect to encounter regularly. There was some pretty good clanging while it was happening, but nothing fell or broke and the only sign of it was some pictures in the living room that were askew. We’ve been feeling aftershocks all day today, but most are nothing more than a little shaking and are barely noticeable unless you’re sitting still.

Even though we’re a ways away from the epicenter the city center did sustain some damage and Kelly got the day off from work as her building is inspected. The South Island on the other hand has some areas that are in bad shape unfortunately. We’ve been good about being proactive and following the emergency preparedness recommendations for the area. We have a small store of food and water that we’re building up and several grab-and-go bags with emergency supplies in case the big one strikes us instead of 120 miles away next time. But as they said on the radio, it the price you pay for the stunning mountains and landscapes of the country.

Next post I’ll try and get a little more into the country itself, if I can remember.