6.3 my ass.

I was at work on Tuesday afternoon, on the 8th floor of my building on Cathedral Square. I was writing an e-mail when suddenly everything started shaking. I'm used to this - we still get aftershocks all the time. I waited for it to stop. It didn't stop. Bookcases started falling over. I dove under my desk and held on.

Gareth was at home with Quinn. He had just put him down for his afternoon nap and was tucking into his lunch. Everything started shaking. Gareth tried to get to Quinn's room but was thrown around and couldn't get there before the shaking stopped.

When I came out from under my desk, every single shelving unit in our office was on its side, files everywhere. People were screaming and wailing. I looked out the window and saw that the top of the Cathedral was missing. The fire alarm was going off. Everyone was looking around in a daze. Someone said we need to get out. Someone else said no, we need to stay.

Gareth got to Quinn and saw that the bookshelf in his room had fallen over, hitting the edge of his cot, which had also moved over about a foot. Somehow, baby Quinn was still sleeping. Gareth picked him up.

There were three of us left in the office. While we had stood there in a stupor, everyone else had evacuated! We suddenly realised we were the last three there and headed for the stairwell. On our way down, we stepped over the broken glass from windows that had blown out. Eight stories is a lot of stairs. I ran down as fast as I could and tried very hard not to think about what would happen if an aftershock hit right now.

Gareth heard our neighbour calling for him and went outside with Quinn. Other neighbours were wobbling out of their houses, getting their bearings. Windows were broken, stone cladding had been shaken loose.

I got to the bottom of the stairwell (finally!) and ran out into the street. There was broken glass everywhere. Someone was shouting at me but it took a second to register. It was one of my co-workers and she was saying, "Lindsay GET AWAY FROM THE BUILDING!" Ahh, right, yes. I jogged over to her and joined everyone from my work. Lots of hugging, crying, frantic dialling of cell phones that would not connect. I kind of just stood there and stared. Someone said I looked really pale.

Gareth helped the neighbour get her car keys out of her house (she didn't want to go in alone, get stuck under falling debris, and never be found again). Then he spoke with the neighbours on the other side, and eventually joined a group that was forming across the street. They were setting up camp. It was some time before he was able to retrieve his phone from the mess in the kitchen and find that I had been trying to call and text him. He had no idea the earthquake had been as big as it was or caused so much damage until he saw my text, "the top of the cathedral fell off."

I was walking home with 2 of my workmates who also live on the south side of town. I needed to get to Gareth and Quinn. My workmate's 13 year old had gotten out of school early and she had no idea where he was. It was a very nervous time. We walked quickly. We saw liquifaction and rubble and rips in the ground where the earth had broken open.

I thought about taking photos with my phone, but couldn't do it. It was weird - I knew I'd want to remember this, and that I'd want to show Gareth what I was seeing, but I could not snap any photos. It would have been like taking a photo of a corpse or something. Too wrong. I took no photos.

I finally got a text from Gareth saying he and Quinn were ok. It didn't make my need to see them any less urgent though.

It took almost 2 hours to walk home I think, although I'm not really sure. When I had about a kilometre to go, it occurred to me that I could hitchhike. I stuck my thumb out and someone stopped, like, instantly. She drove me up the road a ways until she had to turn, and I got out and walked the rest of the way.

Gareth and Quinn were in the neighbours' yard. They were putting a tent up. Our family hug at that moment ranks in the top 5 of All Time Best Hugs.

The house looked pretty bad.

How bad do things have to move to shake sliding doors out of their frame?

We're going to have to buy some new glasses.

We have a lot of cracks like these.

These bricks should be on our house.

This is not good.

You can break our photo frame, but you can't break our love!!

One thing I've taken from this is that the Richter Scale is total bullshit. When I heard on the radio that this one was a 6.3, I thought it was a mistake. If the September earthquake was a 7.1, this one should have been an 8 or more. There was so much more damage. People died. Gareth points out that this earthquake was much more shallow and much closer to town than the September one, and that is why 6.3 was so much more tragic than 7.1.

If I had gone for a walk at lunchtime or if Gareth had come to town a little later for Quinn's lunchtime feed, things might have ended very differently for us. When we finally got power again, we were very touched to find how many friends had sent us messages on facebook and that friends we haven't even met yet had posted on our blog. Thank you for your kind words and thoughts. We are doing fine.