Moving And Shaking

We had an earthquake. You’ve maybe read about it in the news. It was on 14th November, a little after midnight. 

Once the excitement of an earthquake is over, however, there is a considerable aftermath that doesn’t get reported – not in the international press, at any rate. You might find a story about some cows stranded on a piece of land, but that’s about it. So here’s an update on what has happened for my international readers.

Firstly, an earthquake is not “an” earthquake. It is one large quake followed by a number of aftershocks. These vary in intensity and location. Since the first quake there have now been over 5,000 aftershocks. Yesterday we had a big one, 5.5M, which gave a definite bump. I reported it on Geonet, which collates reports of felt earthquakes, and is the source of all the reporting for earthquake data.

Secondly, this was a BIG quake. The fact that it struck on the middle of the night in a sparsely populated region is probably one of the main reasons why there were very few fatalities. The second reason is that New Zealand houses are generally of wooden construction, which makes them far less likely to fall down in a quake. In fact, the buildings destroyed were either of older, brick construction, or hit by falling chimneys (of brick construction) from neighbouring houses. However, this chart shows that the energy released by this earthquake is greater than the sum of all energy released by ALL other earthquakes in the last six years. That includes the two that hit Christchurch in 2011. It is the largest recorded in New Zealand since the 2009 Dusky Sound quake.

Wellington is the nearest city to the earthquake, and the effects were felt here, even though we’re 200 km from the epicentre. After an event like this, buildings are checked to see if they’re in imminent danger of collapsing. One building, on Molesworth Street, was cordoned off at this stage, and several others were also closed. An aftershock did further damage to the Molesworth St building, and at this point it was “red-stickered” – condemned for demolition. After making their initial checks, engineers did more detailed work on buildings that had suffered damage, and over the last three weeks more buildings have been red-stickered. Other buildings need substantial remedial work before they can be reopened, but do not need to be torn down.

61 Molesworth Street being demolished

There has been considerable comment in the press about damage to newer buildings, which appear to have fared worse than some older buildings. Two in particular, the BNZ building on the quay (which was closed for several months after the 2013 quake), and the Asteron Centre on Featherston Street. Both of these buildings are designed to be quake-resistant – what we’re learning from this is that the design is not quake-PROOF: the idea is that the building will take the damage whilst preserving the lives of those inside. Buildings can be replaced. The current map of buildings that are closed or due to be demolished now stands at 25, although only five of those are to be demolished.

On the South Island, closer to the epicentre, there has been considerable damage to roads and rail. The coastal SH1 route to Kaikoura has been blocked by landslides in several places, and there is still some debate about whether that route will be re-opened, or whether a new overland route will be made to get to Kaikoura. The town itself, whilst not too badly damaged, is highly dependent on tourism for its survival, so with no road in at the moment many are facing loss of their livelihoods.

In the nearby Marlborough wine region, there has been some damage to vineyards, and around 2% of wine stored at vineyards has been lost. This is not significant in overall terms, although obviously some vineyards have been badly affected. Storage for the coming harvest should be replaced in time.

Geonet have made some predictions about likely probabilities of aftershock intensity and frequency, and so far we have been at the low end of those forecasts. It’s fair to say we’re not out of the woods yet. There’s still a possibility of a large quake (6.0 or higher) over the coming weeks.

Closer to home, we’ve suffered some damage from both the original quake and the one yesterday. During the original quake, my toothbrush fell from its upright position, into the bathroom sink. And from yesterday, my shower sponge fell from its shelf onto the floor of the shower. Obviously we’ve lodged claims with EQC to cover these and we’re waiting to hear the outcome.

The Earth Moved

A few weeks ago, I’d taken advantage of an deal on GrabOne to spend two nights in the Martinborough Hotel, a boutique hotel in the main square of Martinborough, in the centre of the wine-growing region of Wairarapa.

As we were setting out, we stopped for petrol. Barely had I put the nozzle in the tank when the ground started shaking. The customer at the next pump looked at me and said “that’s not me imagining it, is it?” “No,” I replied, “that’s the ground moving.” I quickly re-holstered the nozzle and crouched down behind the car until the shaking stopped.

Inside the petrol station, one of the staff was picking up crates of water bottles which had been tipped over in the rattling. Nothing else was disturbed, however, so we made our merry way over the Rimutakas to Martinborough. On the way we checked Geonet on my phone, and found out that the quakes (as there had been several) were more severe than we thought, so we checked in with our offices, to find that everyone had been sent home.

Road damage near Seddon

We reached Martinborough with no further incident, and were sitting watching the news (main story: earthquake in Wellington) when a further big one hit. This we felt rather more, as we were on the first floor of the hotel, and the building shook quite considerably.

The aftershocks continued through the night and the next day, although nothing that was of the same magnitude.

As usual, the media tried to big up the story, trying to find people to say they were scared. In this they were hampered by the good people of Wellington, where massive outbreaks of sensibleness took place. The media take on traffic "fleeing" the city is just what happens on a Friday afternoon - i.e. people going home.  It's called "Rush Hour", media people, and it happens every day.

As of today, there is still an 89% chance of a further aftershock of 5.5, and a 40% chance of a magnitude 6.

Continued Rumblings

After last week’s  6.5 magnitude quake, our building was given the all clear on Tuesday, and we returned to work on Wednesday. The aftershocks seemed to be lessening in intensity and everything went back to normal. The likelihood of another big shake was decreasing.

But it didn’t disappear entirely, and on Sunday night (well, Monday morning) there was another large aftershock of 5.4 magnitude.  No damage was reported from this one, and we returned to work on Monday (after first checking that we were all clear to do so).

On Monday night at 9:45 there was a further 4.1 magnitude aftershock – strong enough to be felt, but that was about it.

In unrelated geology news, White Island has been showing more signs of activity of late, and whilst the alert level is still 1 (Departure from typical background surface activity), the aircraft warning has changed to yellow (Volcano is experiencing signs of elevated unrest above known background levels).

Not "The Big One"

Another Friday morning at work; so far, so normal. Then the building starts to shake. OK, we think, that’s happened before. But it doesn’t stop, and when the shaking suddenly gets worse, I followed emergency procedures and dived under my desk, and held onto the desk leg until the shaking stopped.

The information was on Geonet almost immediately: a 5.9 magnitude earthquake had struck just off the coast of South Island, near a “town” called Seddon (pop. 510).

Well, that gave us something to talk about for the rest of the day. There were some aftershocks, but nothing you could really feel, until mid-afternoon, when another shock of 4.6 magnitude rumbled through. Back under the desk again.

Throughout the weekend there were further aftershocks – you could feel the vibrations if you sat down or lay down perfectly still – but nothing really to worry about. That is, until late Sunday afternoon, when a really big one came through. Originally measured at 6.9, it was later confirmed as a 6.5 magnitude quake (by way of comparison, the two quakes which shook Christchurch in February and June  2011 were 6.3 and 6.4 magnitude).

There has been some damage to buildings in the centre of Wellington, including some broken windows, cracked concrete and roads, and damage caused by sprinkler systems going off, as well as the usual stuff falling off supermarket shelves and making a mess, which looks impressive in the news but isn’t really damage.

Damage in the BNZ building on Harbour Quays

On Monday morning, parts of the CBD were closed to the public, and Civil Defence were advising people not to come into work. Our Business Continuity Plan had already been brought into effect on Sunday night, with messages cascading down about what to do and whether to go to work. Monday was a “quake day” for us, so we decided to go and watch The World’s End at The Roxy, which seemed appropriate.

By Monday evening, most buildings had been given the all clear by structural engineers, and Nicola went into work as normal on Tuesday. The building I work in, unfortunately, is one of those that has not yet been opened – it’s apparently suffered some damage due to a ruptured water tank, so I’m still waiting to find out when I’m supposed to go back to work.

This series of earthquakes – a “swarm” in the jargon – is centred in the Cook Strait. It is not on the Wellington Fault, which is the biggest concern for Wellingtonians. (The whole city is built on a fault – way to go, early settlers!) Whether this series has increased or decreased the likelihood of a quake on the Wellington Fault is still a matter for the seismologists to figure out. However, the fact that the fault is known about is probably a contributing factor in the resilience of the buildings to the quake, as all modern buildings have been built to a more rigorous earthquake-proofing code, and older buildings have been strengthened.

We’re still getting aftershocks in the magnitude 4 range, which is just about at the limit of being felt. The likelihood of another large shock is decreasing, so they say, but it hasn’t gone away entirely.

Shake, Rattle And Roll

On Saturday we took our first "proper" ballroom dancing medal. The medals that we've taken so far have all been in the "social" category - for bronze, you do two dances, for silver, three, and for gold, four. However, the standard of dancing does not need to be very high to gain a pass - in fact it's rumoured that you get a score of 90 just for showing up for the first one! The Ballroom class includes waltz, foxtrot, quickstep and tango. For the bronze level, we do waltz and foxtrot, as we've been doing these dances almost from the beginning, and we're now trying to improve our technique rather than learn the steps to these dances. The tests were running late when we got there (as always seems to be the case - an instance of Hofstader's law in action?) and we were just able to get in before they decided to take lunch.

In the evening we went to the social dance, which is usually arranged for the same day as the medal tests so that badges and certificates can be presented in the evening. We'd arranged with a few of our contemporaries to meet up beforehand at a Chinese restaurant nearby, before proceeding to the dance in the Whitireia Performance Centre, our usual venue. It was while we were dining here that the earth moved - quite a significant rumble (magnitude 5.7, we found out later, and the most severe earthquake in the region since 1966). We joked about it, as you do, and then finished our dinner.

At the dance we were presented with our bronze medals and certificates, together with the examiners' comments. I guess the time has now come to start paying some proper attention to these in order to improve our dancing style. Still scoring in the Highly Commended category, but at the bottom end of the score range these days instead of the top. I definitely need to work on some aspects of my dance before I attempt another medal. We are, however, increasingly confident at the social dances and can tackle most of the dances that are available. We are planning to take our dancing out "into the wild" again in the new year.

On Thursday morning of the following week, we were once again visited by the earthquake gods - this time with a relatively minor 4.2, which I missed because I was at street level. When I got back to the office I found out about it - but then, you always feel them more when you're on the 7th floor.

Filling The Basin

On Sunday, we headed down to Wellington’s cricket ground, the Basin Reserve, for a charity fundraiser for the Christchurch earthquake. Two guest teams had been assembled from cricketers past and present, and a few rugby players and actors, some of whom were in New Zealand for the filming of The Hobbit. Amongst those present either playing, coaching or umpiring were:

Shane Warne

Sir Richard Hadlee

Nathan Astle

Martin Crowe

Russell Crowe

Sir Ian McKellen

Martin Freeman

James Nesbitt

Ritchie McCaw

Tana Umaga

The Reserve was full (unlike on other occasions when we’d been there to watch the cricket) and a large proportion of the crowd were wearing the red & black that Canterbury’s cricket and rugby teams play in.

Shot, Bro!

There was entertainment before the game got underway, in the form of Jason Kerrison, singer from NZ band Op Shop, who gave us a couple of tunes. Then, after a minute’s silence, the national anthem was sung by Kristin Darragh.

And then the game began. Although it was a “friendly” match, no quarter was being given…but as there was a $1,000 bonus being offered for every boundary scored, there waren’t many lunges to stop the fours reaching the rope. Unless, that is, you were the twelfth man, who’d paid top dollar on Trademe for the privilege, and who made a heroic diving stop to save one such boundary.

Tana Umaga, former All Blacks captain, had a bowl, and took the wicket of McMillan, one of Christchurch’s stalwart batsmen; before taking a stunning catch and dismissing Dion Nash for a duck in the next over. He’s no slouch, and the Black Caps should keep an eye on him…!

At half time, there was the promised encounter between Shane Warne and Prime Minister John Key. The first ball was a tricky one…

Warne delivers his trademark underarm ball to the PM

After that, Warne bowled properly (-ish), but the PM was up to the task, and hit him to the boundary twice, with his attempt to hit a six off the final ball of the over bouncing just inside the rope.

After the break, Wellington came in to chase the 225 total set by the Cantabrians. It looked like a hopeless task, and, although they managed one over with 3 sixes and two fours, they were (in typical Wellington style) always behind the required run rate, and finished up with 215.

Yet another good day out at the Reserve, and all in a good cause, with over half a million dollars raised on the day.

Let's Get Quizzical

On Tuesday, we went to the usual quiz night at the Backbencher pub – joined this week by Nick and Alannah from Nicola’s work. The questions were difficult (some rounds most teams were scoring 1-5 correct answers) and competition was tight, and came down to a tie-break for second place between us and our arch-rivals in the corner; the tie-break question, set by the landlord's daughter (aged 8) was “in what month was my dog born?” – not the sort of information that’s readily available, or work-out-able from first principles. So I guessed October, and it was right! Second place to us for the second week running. So far, so good.

On Thursday, my employer organised a fundraising quiz for the Christchurch earthquake relief fund being organised by the Red Cross (you can donate here) at one of Wellington’s big sports bars, Four Kings. This was a much more organised affair, involving telly screens, pictures, music and video clips, and two rounds to play our jokers on. There was also a “ponderous poser” where increasingly easy clues (one per quiz round) are given to identify the answer – the sooner you get the answer, the more points you get.

There were also spot prizes being given throughout, and when the MC came round to our section and asked the question (Who do the All Blacks play in the first match of the Rugby World Cup?) Andy sprang to his feet and gave the answer first – thus earning himself a t-shirt and a water bottle. There was a raffle too, so we all bought tickets, and crossed our fingers. Halfway through the quiz they announced the raffle winners…and I am the lucky recipient of a crate of wine! How lucky I am has yet to be determined, as it hasn’t arrived yet, so I don’t know how good the wine is. Also throughout the quiz there were auctions for various prizes (a football signed by the All Whites, that kind of thing) which raised significant amounts of cash.

We’d played our jokers on the final two rounds – Science & Nature (“green, green, we never get them wrong”) and Geography. We’d also got the ponderous poser for maximum points, and, when the final score was counted, we’d snuck up the leader board from nowhere to claim – you guessed it – second prize! We were somewhat gobsmacked ourselves – as John shows in this picture!

What a team!

The prize was a bottle of wine each and a $50 bar tab which we immediately spent on a round of drinks.

Afterwards, some of the tables were cleared and a casino set up – again proceeds go to charity – and we hung around a while, playing roulette and blackjack. There was also a crooner singing Frank Sinatra songs and the like.

So the proverbial good time was had by all, and a lot of money raised for the Christchurch appeal.

On Friday, we went to the Treasury quiz night. This was a much more informal affair, and was being run for fun only – no hard cash was at stake. Although at one point we’d reached the dizzy heights of second place, we failed at the final hurdle and ended up in mid-table, failing to make a three-from-three end to the week. Ah well.

Afterwards we went to dinner at Arbitrageur, a wine bar/restaurant in the CBD that had been recommended to me by John. After the somewhat disappointing experience at the White House a couple of weeks ago, I was somewhat trepidatious, but my fears turned out to be unfounded as they served us with very good food and wine, and didn’t hang about all night! One of their selling points is their food and wine matching, with over 60 wines available by the glass and a waiter who clearly knew his stuff. I was happy to defer to his knowledge and let him select wines to go with my menu choices. I think we’ll be going back to this place. They also do tapas (with wine selections) so we don’t need to go the whole hog from the a la carte menu. We also ran into a couple that we know from our dancing classes there.

Next week, we’re back to just one quiz night…it’s about time we took the top prize again at the Backbencher, so thinking hats on!

Felt That One

Welcome to the shaky isles!

OK, not on the scale of Christchurch (thank god), but we've just felt our first earthquake. It measured 4.5 on the Richter scale. It rattled the walls of the house a bit, for around a second. More here.

The Cinnamon Club

Those of you who follow my antics on h2g2 may already be aware of the cinnamon situation: that we bought a 250g bag of cinnamon quills for our housewarming party to make mulled wine, as it is actually cheaper to buy a catering pack than it is to buy one of those Schwartz-type jars containing approximately 3 cinnamon sticks. This means that we have a surfeit of cinnamon in the house, and we are seeking creative ways to use it in cooking. So far we have tackled the obvious option of moussaka, and last night I made cinnamon & lemon chicken, which, surprisingly (to me, at any rate) is an actual recipe. Does anyone have any other suggestions? Please send recipes to the usual address! At the moment we have no grinding facility, but when our stuff arrives from the UK, hopefully in the near future, I’ll be able to grind cinnamon quills for inclusion in baking etc.

That Earthquake In Full

You may have heard that there’s been “an earthquake” in Christchurch. Click on this link to find out more: http://www.christchurchquakemap.co.nz/