NZ memories: 6.3 earthquake hits Christchurch
The Christchurch Cathedral after being badly damaged in February's quake. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Late February in New Zealand is warm and the weather is settled. At lunch hour on a weekday its city centres are thronged with office workers doing some shopping or eating sushi in the sun.
In Christchurch the best place for a lunch break was not so much the Square, always full of visitors taking photos of the Cathedral and enjoying the street life, but Cashel St's outdoor mall or the cafes on the Oxford Tce "strip", or anywhere along the grassy banks of the Avon.
February 22, 2011, was just such a summer day. As the clock ticked towards 1pm, some were still at lunch, others were meandering back to work. The city had its normal summer hum.
At 12.51 it happened. The jolt was immense. People picked themselves off the ground with dust and debris swirling. Dimly they could see that parapets had fallen on footpaths. Some people were not getting up.
In the dust and daze, people saw bits of buildings give way and stone and masonry topple. They knew they had to get out of there, and they had to know what had happened to loved ones.
Cellphone networks were instantly overloaded with calls not only within the city but, soon, from family in other parts of the country as the news spread. A Herald team of reporters reached the city by evening.
Staff on APN's Christchurch paper, The Star, set up a temporary office in the western suburbs and continued to bring out the paper with help from the Herald in Auckland.
The quake was much worse than any of the aftershocks that had shaken Christchurch since the magnitude 7 earthquake five months before. This one, geologists reported, was magnitude 6 but shallower than the original and closer to the city.
The ruptured fault under the Port Hills had generated ground forces unprecedented in New Zealand. Vertical acceleration 1.8 times gravity was far more than stone walls could survive.
People stumbling through the Square that day saw the distinctive Cathedral spire had gone, reduced to a pile of dusty rock.
Other colonial churches were in ruin, as was the Provincial Council Chamber and the popular Arts Centre precinct.
But those living in the eastern suburbs had a more urgent problem when they reached their homes. The shaking had caused ground water to come to the surface, covering paths and driveways in the stinking muck of "liquefaction".
Next day a student volunteer army arrived to help begin the task of shovelling it away.
For some people in the east, living close to the river or the estuary where the land had subsided towards the water, there was no way to save their buckled homes or rebuild on the same land. These "red zoned" households received a Government pay-out. Many in the "green zone" were left to argue with their insurers for repair or replacement.
Not much could be decided while the quakes continued. Two more magnitude 6 aftershocks hit the city in 2011.
But mid-way through 2012 a plan was drawn to give Christchurch a new heart.
As it happened I watched as elderly residents were thrown to the ground, one old woman was lifted from her dining seat and thrown back 2 meters. It was mind blowing. When it ceased for a short moment we knew it was bad.
All of rushed to the residents rooms to help them, check they were ok. With possibilities of broken bones and imminent trauma we knew we had allot of work cut out for us. Then come the next massive hit, door ways caving in about me as I run down a corridor.
All residents were brought out of their rooms, those injured had a staff member stay with them. The kitchen was completely smashed to bits. It was then there was a filtering of calls was coming through on mobile phones, people had been killed. We all cried.
Then as quick as we started crying, we stopped and got back to it. I will never forget it, and I will never forget the loss of our Ivy in the CTV. This day will stay with me forever.
When the quake struck I realised this was far bigger than the other aftershocks, as the table almost slid from side to side . As I stood up to move to my left to hold the tall sideboard, the quake started properly & I told everyone to get out in the front driveway away from the house built of bricks.
I found the floor was moving so fast from side to side I could not hold the wall unit up any longer, I had to let go & fell to my knees and held onto a door opening & watched the unit crash in a shower of glass & wood onto the mahogany dining table & chair where my Mother-in-law had been sitting not 30 seconds previously!
My wife was in a huddle with her sons trying to protect their mum/grandma in the centre as they found they were unable to walk the 5 metres to the front door. When the the quake stopped I had to scramble through the lounge & unlock s door in the conservatory to get outside. All were OK but severely shaken.