Recovering

We just weren't sure that our house would not fall down with every new aftershock, so we spent the first few days after Tuesday's quake staying with friends up the road. It turns out that the construction of your house can really affect your experience of aftershocks. When an aftershock hit while sitting in our house, it felt like Armageddon. When an aftershock hit while sitting in Emma's house, it felt like someone had bumped your chair. If money were no object, we'd build ourselves a nice concrete house right now.

A few months ago we had booked flights to Auckland to visit Gareth's sister and brother-in-law for the B-I-L's 40th birthday party. We had planned to only come up for the weekend, but as the weekend neared and we still had no power or water at home, we decided to extend that a bit. Thankfully, JetStar did not give us any grief about changing our tickets. I'm pretty certain the call centre lady would not have wanted to meet the can of whoop ass that Gareth was ready to deliver if she had given us any trouble.

So we went to Auckland. On the one hand, it was really, really good to be on solid ground. It was so good to hug our niece and nephew and be with family. We are so grateful for their hospitality.

On the other hand, it's hard to be away from home. Our friends and neighbours are suffering through hard times right now, and we've skipped out of town to be more comfortable. Granted, about 20% of the city has skipped town, so we're by no means unique. But there was this strange part of us that wanted to be there through this time and be a part of what's happening. And of course, no matter how gracious the hosts (and our hosts are as gracious as they come), there's no place like home. I kind of miss my bed.

I think Christchurch's earthquake has been New Zealand's 9/11. The outpouring of love and support from the rest of the country has been extraordinary. We are just 2 displaced people in Auckland, but have experienced heaps of warm fuzzies. For one, everywhere you go, there are collection boxes for Christchurch. And these boxes don't just have spare change in them. I've seen twenties.

Two colleagues from the Auckland branch of my company have offered us their houses. Friends of Gareth's sister have also offered us accommodation. The Auckland zoo gave us special discounted admission rates just because we're from Christchurch. I'm a sap at the best of times, but you know these last 9 days have been especially trying when a $4 discount reduces me to tears. Thankfully, stress relief is available: the neighbour's friend is a masseuse offering free massages to Christchurch refugees. oh yes, I'm feeling the love.

I blogged some time ago about the neighbours' cat dying on our driveway. It was awkward, and perhaps understandably, our relationship with those neighbours never got very friendly. The earthquake has completely changed all that. Karen has been calling Gareth almost daily with updates. They're holding our keys to let the EQC in, managing a contractor to remove loose bricks and weatherproof the house while we're gone, and really, just being all-around awesome. Nothing like a tragedy to bring people together.

The newspapers and other media coverage imply that there will be mass migration from Christchurch, but we don't know anyone who plans to move permanently. We certainly have no plans to leave. We're really excited to be a part of Christchurch's comeback. Strange how connected we feel to the place having only lived there for less than two years. But we've bought a home there and our son was born there, and we're not leaving.