Christchurch earthquake - unbelievable

From a beautiful view like this walking up Mount Maunganui....

I returned to work to find my 'mesk' looking like this....

And then the news of the Christchurch earthquake struck on my first day back. It was felt here on the West Coast, but not as badly as the first quake in September. Having two sons and an 86 year old mother-in-law in the city there was a bit of anxious waiting to confirm where the damage was and where they were.

My eldest son was walking down a stairwell at his work, stopped on a shaking landing and then the power went off leaving him in the dark. As soon as the shaking stopped he was out of the building, work was stopped and he trekked an hour home as obviously there were no buses. He said it was an interesting experience with constant shakes, walking around piles of rubble, and avoiding silt spilling out of the ground. Several days on he has power, but still no water, although there is a water tanker not too far away. His flat is not damaged and he has had a visit from Red Cross checking his street which is off Colombo Street, and providing leaflet information on various services. Amazing that they are doing a house to house in the area to check on people which is great. Physically fine, it is the logistics of things which will be a problem - no transport and the nearest open supermarket was 90 minutes walk away. Others are now beginning to open up. His flatmates have fled to places where the ground does not move, so lack of company is also a factor.

Youngest son got under a table at work and then set off for home on his bike. His flatmates are staying around and they have a bolthole offered out of Christchurch if they wish. Being in Riccarton they only suffered things falling off shelves, and have both power and water back on, but obviously few shops open at this stage.

Mother-in-law, in her own unit in a retirement village, is determined to stay put and not come to stay with us. In fact she will not even go out shopping when offered a chance. They had water on, but it is now off again. The village has a water tanker and portaloos (which she will not use so guess her garden will be well fertilised this year!). The Oxford Terrace Baptist Church which she has attended most of her life, and which had its frontage badly damaged in the last quake, is now reported to be a pile of rubble.

Today my husband is making a mercy dash and will go round the outskirts of Christchurch, staying well away from the centre, to check on all three and take supplies. Eldest son needs his father's bike for transport, plus a supermarket shop where he doesn't have to carry heavy loads; youngest just needs checking on as he has suffered panic attacks in the past, but still has flatmates for company this time; mother-in-law needs the food she will not go out and shop for, so is getting supplies plush fresh veges from our garden.

Thank goodness it is less than three hours drive from here. Hubby has strict instructions (which he will ignore) about keeping himself safe. Hopefully he will return safely later tonight.

In the meantime it has started raining here. I hope it hasn't in Christchurch as the rescue and recovery efforts do not need it. I am about to catch up on housework which I always complain about, but not today. At least I have a house to clean unlike many devastated people over the hill.

Long time, no write....

Being a new blogger, I found it difficult to keep up with this while travelling. The iPad was great, but the lack of wireless was a downer. Despite all the visitors to our area who insist they get free wireless everywhere I certainly found things to be different. Aside from MacDonald's and the Wellington waterfront most of the places we visited made it hard to find wifi at all. Libraries in Turangi and Tauranga are also not part of APNK which is interesting.
Despite this my husband reckoned the iPad was well worth its price as it kept me amused for hours. There are many games on which I can waste time and I have downloaded several books to read including the Steig Larsson series beginning with The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. I have read all three, and seen the movies, but I find these books have so much content I'm happy to read them again.
During the trip I read two crime novels by Jonathan Kellerman , Gone and Self Defence, and started Sophie Kinsella's  The Wedding Girl (writing as Madeleine Wickham) for a change of pace. 'Proper' books still had a look  in as I read my first Lee Child book, The Killing Floor, while with my brother and sister-in-law who are big fans of his writing. The blood spatter and body count were quite high, but as a crime/thriller I enjoyed it and plan to read more of his books.

We had a great trip up to the 'other island' with Jean’s new Navman leading the way, despite it telling us to do u-turns if he decided to change his mind about his destination and stop to see something along the way. Figuring out how to set in waypoints along the route is yet to come, but in the awful Auckland traffic it was amazing.

Jean had fun fishing in Turangi and walking the Tongariro river. For myself I preferred to walk alongside it in the shade of the trees.

 From rivers and on to beaches, we visited sunny Mount Maunganui to celebrate my 60th birthday in style with lunch outdoors at Mill's Reef winery. They had what they called paddles which provide four wine glasses each containing half a glass. In this way you could try out four different wines. However, as there were four of us we ended up with 16 wine glasses on the table and everyone felt they would look good, once emptied, sitting in front of me!  Great food, great service, good company - highly recommended.

Holiday time at the Mount included swimming and boogie boarding at the beach, a cruise on the harbour, a walk up Mount Maunganui (over 500 steps, I counted!),  swimming in the saltwater hot pools, and visiting McLaren falls for a picnic lunch by a lake. An evening was spent seeing the movie The King’s Speech which everyone thoroughly enjoyed. 

We then moved on to stay in Auckland with my niece and her partner and two children aged 3 and 1. They were certainly demanding. I had forgotten those days!  We also stayed a couple of days with a cousin and her partner who live out in a peaceful bush area out of central Auckland in a cute and cottagey house I love. What's more it was only minutes from a quilt shop. The perfect location.

Naturally I found a few quilt shops along the way including The Dog Box in Picton, The Quilted Gumboot in Taihape, Clever Hands in Taupo, Krazy Cow at Levin, FibreFlair at Waikanae and The Quilters' Barn in Blenheim. Just a few and just a few fabric pieces to play with.

Now back on the 'Mainland' Jean has returned to work today to see what is waiting for him after two weeks away and for me it is one last day to catch up with home. Back to work tomorrow to see what has piled up on my desk.

Holiday by the sea

The last day of another decade and at least before I turn 'ancient' I get to relax at the beautiful beach at Mount Maunganui. Yesterday I was walking by an equally beautiful river at Turangi while hubby went trout fishing. Along the way there's naturally been necessary stops at The Quilted Gumboot at Taihape and Clever Hands at Taupo. We have three days to enjoy this lovely area before heading to the vast, noisy metropolis of Auckland to visit family. Quilting has been reduced to drooling over fabric. Reading has been an experiment in reading downloaded books on the iPad. In this case what I call my 'chewing gum' reads that don't take a lot of concentration - Star Trek books (yes, I confess to being a long time Trekkie) and Debbie Macomber short stories. Well, I am on holiday after all. Today a scenic tour of the area is planned, plus shopping in Tauranga and a long lunch somewhere nice with a glass of wine. It's a hard job being on holiday.

Where did this week go?

Actually, that should be 'where did January go'? Spent the week setting up and playing with the iPad when I wasn't interrupted by little things like having to go to work. The free wifi at work proved useful when learning to buy ebooks on the Internet. Both Whitcouls and Amazon (with a Kindle app for the iPad) worked like a charm and downloaded my books in no time at all. I now have several ready to read on my travels, plus my contacts loaded and email connection sorted. My husband has figured out how to add photos through the separate photo connector which should prove handy on our trip.

Not much quilting done again this week, but I have made a handy dandy bag for my iPad using some bright Laurel Burch fabric sent to me by a U.S. friend. Doesn't it look great? Maybe next time I'll add a pocket for the accessories, but it was quick and fun to make.
Tomorrow we are off on our great 'overseas' travel - overseas to the North Island that is. With neighbours for house and cat minders we will set off early for our ferry trip to Wellington and onwards. The iPad will provide entertainment while the other half fishes, and our trip will take us past (or maybe not 'past') several quilt shops along the way. It'll be fun to see if I can add to this blog as we go.
Her majesty, the ruler of the house,  is alongside me and talking loudly. It might be a reminder that I have things to do, but is more probably what my husband calls an 'impolite request' to add to her food bowl.
Oh well, chores to do, packing to start, iPads to play with.......