It's hard to write about this.

As it was. Christchurch city view from Crowne Plaza 2006

I have been so distracted these past few days glued to the the tv and internet news and checking Facebook and my email to see what is happening in Christchurch and trying to find out how all my peeps are.

I was suppose to be there, but decided about a month ago that being 8mths pregnant the thought of airports and strange beds was not something I wanted to deal with right now. So Sam went with just Big M to his sisters wedding last week. They were due home on Tuesday evening.

They were not in a good place when the quake happened, but are fine and moving round from place to place while they wait to be able to fly home again. I say "home" but Christchurch is our other home. It's where we moved from 2 & half years ago, and my husband was born there and lived there all his life. It is where we met, married and had our first child.


I missed the September 4th earthquake by a few days.
About a week before it happened whilst I was there, I had taken myself into the city centre for lunch at my favourite noodle place. I sat there slurping my soup looking out the window at all the buildings surrounding me and thought "what a beautiful city this is, I am so lucky to have such a nice city to come back to anytime".
 You see I like Melbourne, but I think about Canterbury (region Christchurch is in) most days. It really is a beautiful place and I miss it.

And now the lovely old buildings that had survived last time are gone. But its the people that I am just so sad about.

The people of Christchurch.

They have had half a year of continuing after shocks. They have been dealing with their kids too scared to sleep  because of the 'shaky shaky'. They have been waiting to see if their houses were ready to be rebuilt. Waiting for insurance. But half a year had passed and they were beginning to relax, thinking from what the experts said, that if a sizable aftershock hadn't happened by now, then it was unlikely it would.

But what do they do now? How long will aftershocks continue? Each one since Tuesday has been rattling peoples nerves. Will there be another big one? So many people have lost homes and jobs, and so devastatingly, loved ones.

What does that city do now?

Its been a long 3 days for me and I'm not even there. Cantabrians now have weeks, months and years ahead of making sense of where to from here?

Please consider donating  cash via
http://www.redcross.org.nz/http://www.redcross.org.nz/cms_display.php?friendly_url=donate

Also, blogger Leonie of Kiwi at Heart has set up a Softies for Children of Christchurch appeal. You can find out more HERE.