Day 259: Jenna's Birthday!



Table for high tea



Jenna, Emma and Louisa all have birthdays in September and October.  And they are all turning 25.  So they decided to have high tea at The Sign of the Takahe to celebrate.  We got dressed up and munched delicious sandwiches whilst sipping tea and coffee and enjoying decadent desserts in a midaeval style castle.  The Sign of the Takahe used to be a road house for travelers coming from Lyttleton Harbour to Christchurch.  Now it's a restaurant.  There's also a Sign of the Kiwi (which is a cafe) and a Sign of the Bellbird (which is the remains of a stone house.)  They are all that's left of the road stops that used to serve travellers back in the day.



Example of the decor



Jenna, one of the birthday girls



Yum nibbles



Day 252:Dress Like a Pirate Day

My costume

Tomorrow is International Talk Like a Pirate Day and also locally it is Dress Like a Pirate Day at work.  Here is my costume.  Notice my knarly hook hand.  I also have some sweet hoop earrings (donated by Jenna) and some pirate-y scarves in my hair and around my waist (also donated by Jenna).  Arrrrr....

Day 250: Off trail hiking



Mel & Batman at falls



View of the tops

We had a closed day at work today, so I went for a wander in the woods with Mel and Hamish (although we all call him Batman.)  Batman is from the area so he knows the woods quite well, which means he doesn't have to stick to any sort of trail.  First we went down a trail that had been closed for slips (mud slides).  We just climbed over them and kept on going.  We found a lovely little waterfall, but I can't remember what it's called.  Then we headed cross country, forded a stream and did some scrambling through the bush, struggling to escape bush lawyer (a vineish plant with very strong stickers that wraps itself around you and makes it difficult to make any forward progress until you work hard to free yourself from its grasp) and bashing ourselves on rocks and things.  Eventually, after a lunch stop by a stream, we worked our way uphill for a while and came out onto the junction with the Mt. Somers trail.  In amongst the bush we found a deer skull and evidence of wild pigs rooting in the dirt.  We hiked up higher until we had a nice view of the mountain and the snow settled on its top, then turned around and headed down via the trail.  It was a pretty fun, hard core day. 



Mel & me & DeerFred 







Victory photo at the end of the day



Day 244: Snowboarding!!



View down the lift line to the obscured plains below



ridin' the lift

I decided to take advantage of my employee lift pass and use it on my day off to go snowboarding with my friend Mel.  We enjoyed super weather and good snow conditions and I improved enough to ride the lift all the way to the top of the mountain and snowboarded down without falling!!! Which is pretty exciting since falling is basically my signature move.  Check out the awesome view down the lift line.  In the background you can see the access road and all the low lying clouds in the distance are covering up the Canterbury plains that stretch away east to the sea, which means that down in Methven it's an overcast, grey day while up on the mountain the sun is shining away...



View from the summit









Day 239: Earthquake Aftermath

Due to a closed day today, I was able to come into Christchurch with my friend Mel to go to church.  Afterwards we went to lunch at one of the family's houses and then Mel and I went on a mission to the mall to try and find a wedding present for my Auckland flatmate Alex.  Unfortunately, when we arrived the mall was crawling with construction workers and not open to the public.  There was a guy sitting at a table blocking the entrance and only letting authorized people inside.  Some giant light ball things had crashed down from the ceiling and you could see inside that things had been a bit shaken up and needed to be put back to rights.  Across the street the sidewalk was cordoned off in front of some shops where the windows had been broken in the shaking.  And next to that a pile of rubble indicated where a building had once stood.  The earthquake seems to have hit somewhat haphazardly: some buildings are fine and others are destroyed.  Christchurch was really fortunate in that the earthquake happened so early in the morning: people were at home with their families and not out and about on the roads or in the shops. Casualties would have been much higher if they had been. Except for the missing pieces of buildings and the holes covered with blue tarps and the chimneys on the ground instead of on the houses or the brick fences crumbling here and there, it's hard to tell that a massive earthquake occurred yesterday.  People are getting on with life as much as they can and as quickly as they can.  There is still a restricted zone in the center of the city, and the army is out patrolling to prevent looting, and a curfew is in effect, but otherwise life goes on.  Some neighborhoods are without power and water and officials are beginning building inspections to determine which buildings are safe to be in.  It will be a massive effort to get the city up and running again.

*Note: the earthquake from yesterday has officially been downgraded to a 7.1 magnitude.  We are still feeling aftershocks in Christchurch and also in Methven.  But, as I said, life goes on...

Day 238: Earthquake!

This morning I was sleeping happily, when I was woken up at 4:35am with the thought, “wow, the wind is really strong,” because I could hear a roaring noise like the wind and it was shaking the house. My next thought was one of confusion, what is happening? Because instead of dying off the shaking and the roaring noise just got stronger and stronger. I was so confused and scared and not sure what was going on. I sat up in bed and then there was an enormous crash from the lounge and I thought maybe the wind had busted the window in. A second later Jenna opened my door and said, “we're leaving.”


Although I was doubting my hypothesis with every passing second, I asked, “Was that the wind?” And she said, “No, it was an earthquake.” (Afterwards she laughed at me for not being able to figure out what was going on.)

So we left the house, which is right on the beach, and drove to higher ground in case of tsunamis. We drove a wee way up the Amberley Beach road and pulled over on the side of the road. It was a really clear night, the stars were amazing. Several other cars from the neighbors pulled off alongside ours and we sat in the dark listening to the soothing voice of the TalkBalk radio DJ telling us not to panic and reading out people's texts that they were sending in to the station. Eventually the news came through that the earthquake was a 7.4 magnitude, 33km below ground (pretty shallow) and 30km west of Christchurch. Every once in a while we could feel the ground shaking again as aftershocks came through. After about an hour there was also a notice from the Pacific Tsunami Warning System saying that although there might be local tsunamis there was no overall tsunami danger, so we returned home. Since then we've been feeling several more aftershocks (up to a 4.9 magnitude) and listening to the radio and TV to get some news. Since the quake was quite close to Christchurch, there is extensive damage in the city, and they have no power there or water as well as no septic systems. Breaks in the water lines and sewer systems and a good shake up of the substations means that it's not likely they will get those back in the immediate future, and they are talking about setting up water stations and water rations for people in the city. Water pipes have burst and there are cracks in the roads. Cars have been crushed by falling debris, the fronts of buildings have tumbled into the road, and chimneys have fallen off houses. Apparently there have been injuries, but not many major ones, and no deaths have been reported. There have also been some reports of looting from downtown Christchurch, and they are asking people to stay at home, not use the phone (to keep the networks clear), conserve water and stay calm. They are saying it is one of the largest earthquake in New Zealand in the last century.

Luckily Jenna & Rob's house has had relatively little damage, being farther north of the city. The massive crash was a potted plant falling off a bookshelf and almost onto Rob's head. It crushed a guitar and also dumped a whole bunch of dirt inside the instrument. Also a smoothie maker fell off the top of the fridge, and a mirror fell over but didn't break, but otherwise, everything else seems okay.

For more info try: http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/4096327/Rocked-in-home-at-the-heart-of-the-quake