Viewing the Earthquake Damage...

On 14th November 2016, I was rudely awakened just after midnight by an earthquake. Not just any earthquake, but by the massive 7.8 that was felt over the whole of New Zealand. I stood in the door frame absolutely terrified as it went on and on and on for just over two minutes. It was the longest two minutes in my life.  I thought I was going to lose my house.

Miraculously only two people died, and while there was much damage, it could have been a whole lot worse. 21 faults were ruptured in this earthquake, making it the most complex quake ever. While the epicentre was in Culverden, it was felt most strongly north of that, particularly where I was, and in Wellington. Consequently, a number of buildings in Wellington have had to be pulled down.

I dread what the casualties would have been had it happened just after noon instead of just after midnight. The massive slips that came down onto our main highway, would have possibly buried many tourists and locals going about their daily business and we would have seen much higher casualty rates.

As the reports came in, we found that the sea bed had risen by between 1 and 6 metres all along the coast from Just south of Blenheim (where I live), to Goose Bay - south of Kaikoura - approximately 150km in length. 

I had been meaning to go out and look at the changes for ages, but today was the first day that I could finally go. Together my friend Kate and I went exploring with our cameras.

First stop was Ward Beach. The main Highway 1 was pretty smooth until about 10k north of Ward, when we started getting uneven surfaces, and we could see where the cracks had been patched with new tar that snaked across the road in places.What was very striking was the fact there was no traffic. Highway 1 is usually fairly busy - but we only saw one or two cars, and the odd truck that was hauling earth from the massive slips down Kaikoura way.

I was shocked at what I saw at Ward Beach. Where once you saw very few rocks and mainly water, rocks had now been exposed...

You can now  see where the new high waterline is compared to the old.  The green shows the new high line, the white is the dead seaweed, and barnaces that used to be below the water.

And the rocks go for miles down the beach, which was once just beach..

In the next image, you can clearly see the new  high tide line - where the seaweed (kelp) lies in the first third of the image. The old high tide line is up where the white rocks at the bottom of the hill are. 

and The top of the hill has had a massive slip..

Dead seaweed and dead barnacles.  You can still smell the rotting vegetation.

This is what the seaweed should look like, not the dead bleached above.

Everywhere there was brown or green stagnant rockpools...

Breeding Mosquitoes and their larvae (Yes I got bitten taking these photos!)

This used to be a rockpool about 4 metres from the low tide. The rockpool had dried out and the mussels died.

Those mussels above are where Kate is resting her hand, and where she is standing is now high and dry, which shows how far the seabed has risen.

Uncovered rocks as far as one can see..

In the following image, I'm standing where the High Tide mark used to be, and the new high tide mark is where all the seaweed is - far below me.

The stick standing is is the old High Tide Marker.

Looking up the coast....

In September 2015, we had a camera club trip out there, and fellow photographer Sarah Kerr took this image which clearly shows.... only a few rocks out of the water.

The coast is still pretty though...

After the beach we carried down the highway to see how far we could get. We came across road damage...

A train tunnel is at the right, and the road had collapsed above it. Workers were there on a break and they explained the tunnel had twisted a bit, and they were there fixing it.

Every bridge we went across had come away at each end from the bank, and each one had been patched.

But Clarence River still looks beautiful.

Over the Bridge over the Clarence, and we come across this lovely crack in the road.  Quite deep. And that was as far as we could go - the road was closed from there on until Kaikoura and won't be open until Christmas time. Massive slips are blocking the highway, so sluicing the tonnes of rockfall out is going to take quite some time.

We decided to go inland for a bit of an exploration from Clarence. We found a beautiful counry road that was easy driving...

We also found a wild apple tree on the side of the road and I now have a bag of apples to stew up.

This next image shows Clarence's newest Lake, formed because of the slips in the river.

We then headed back, stopped for lunch at Seddon and called into Denise's for a cuppa afterwards.

And while I was writing this up, I felt my first earthquake I had felt for a while - a moderate 4.8 that was centred in Wellington.

Just mother nature reminding us who is in charge!

Out of the Cracks. The Christchurch Earthquake Aftermath

I headed down to Christchurch last week to do a bit of imbibing with friends and family for Christmas.  It was my first trip since the second of the two big major quakes, and although I knew that parts of Christchurch was in a bad way, and that I thought I knew what to expect,  I was wrong.  It takes a physical visit to see the damage, to understand even a fraction of what it would have been like for the people living in the city and what it might have been like when the earthquake hit.

I was taken to Avonside Drive - one of the worst hit areas, and in the 'Red Zone'.  That is, people have to leave the area as its no longer safe to life there.  The houses are beyond repair, and although many properties have been abandoned (and understandably so), there are still many people living in their damaged homes, holding on to what is dear to them.  I can understand their feelings.

Out of the cracks of the earthquake though, nature is slowly taking over the abandoned properties.  I've been told that if anything ever happened to the human race, it would only take 90 years or so and then nature would take over and very little trace would be found of us.  Certainly, after only 12 months in Christchurch, you can see it happening already.  The earth has chasms, the houses are ruined, but the flowers are in bloom...

This house is bent in so many ways, I couldn't even begin to align it in photoshop.  Nothing around the house was in a straight line either, so the only way I could tell was the alignment of the weeds coming out of the cracks in the pathway!

 The house next door - overgrown...

This house broke my heart.  Its obviously newly built, and like my new house, made from brick.  And this is what happened to it.  I'm on the Alpine fault, so when that goes, my house will most likely end up looking like this. Seems that wooden houses fare a bit better than the brick ones.  (Makes notes for my next house).  Notice all the liquefaction around the house as well.  It was everywhere.

The house sank.  Or the ground came up...

Whatever happened, the garage entrance is now very small.  This is Kellye - she's five foot nothing and a half.  As you can see she can touch the top of the garage, something that is usually impossible for her.  She tells me that further along, there was a house with a garage that went underground.  It filled with water.  It now has a brand new Mini sitting in the garage full of water and the car can not be retrieved.

A lovely curled deck, courtesy of the ground shaking event.

This house also sank.

Once a perfectly flat concrete driveway.  Now uneven sand.

 I took a photo through the glass with the lens up onto the window.  This is an image looking inside at the damage to the floors.  Liquefaction went right through the houses as well.

The cat door, now buried.

And everywhere the flowers bloomed beautifully, oblivious of the ruins around them.

Blooming in every conceivable crevice and crack wreaked by the huge earthquake... 

Gates can no longer be opened or shut.  My curiosity got the better of me so I wandered through...

The kitchen door was open so I took a photo of inside.  The liquefaction was all over the floor.

Bedrooms ruined, and mould now on the walls..

Carpets and underlay ruined as well.  It would be absolutely heartbreaking for any owner.

Another near new house with huge cracks in the plasterboard.  Didn't really stand a chance.

Everywhere there were port-a-loos still on the side of the roads as the sewerage system around this area is gone.  At least they were bright and colourful!

Many houses had bricks missing, some had props up on the outside holding complete sides up.

A bridge that once was almost flat, now squashed together so it rose in the middle..

Roof tiles gone...

Huge chasms in driveways...

I hope they were able to get their car out of the garage.

Bright red poppies growing in the huge chasms...

The Christchurch residents decorating road cones in preparation for Christmas..

This bridge just twisted.  Almost as if someone grabbed each end and yanked it in different directions.

I was told no one was on the bridge at the time of the quake.  Thank goodness for that...

Can you imagine the noise it would have made?  Not only the earthquake giving out a noise like a freight train, but the grinding of metal and concrete when the bridge twisted?

A city rubbish bin also got munted..

And the last word came from the locals...  They didn't like my photojournalism and mum wanted to protect her ducklings from nosy photographers.  I took the hint and left...

I have vertigo pretty much 24/7 anyway, but being in Christchurch it was 10x worse than normal.  Being in buildings that were on a slant because of uneven foundations, made me feel dizzy and sick.  Driving around on the roads full of potholes made me feel like one of those toy dogs that used to be in the back windows of cars, which used to nod their heads as they go over bumps.

I take my hats off to all those hardy people in Christchurch, and I am looking forward to visiting again to take photos of the rebuild.  You have my utmost respect.