“ Neighbourly fence The earthquakes meant our fences had to be replaced. Our loss adjuster sends a
“ We weren't that impacted by the earthquakes. Our 100 year old single storey wooden character home f
“ The blame game In January, the project manager answers the phone. “In October, the Builder told me
“ House lift We sign a 6-month lease and move to rental accommodation in Avonhead. The townhouse i
“ Mediation The weather is turbulent. A nor-wester shreds leaves off trees. Cold southerly rain f
“ Reinstatement We have our last project group control meeting before Christmas. The extent of the
“ Repair number 3 We have our first project control meeting at 8am. We find out that when Builder
“ Insurance claim I have a dream where I am in a large group and we are all given a small golden ke
“ Christchurch A week later, the security fence on the boundary of our earthquake damaged property
“ Christchurch land A land assessor gives us a call to arrange a time for us to be home. A very la
“ The haircut Christchurch 1:58pm December 23rd 2011 The floor to ceiling window panes of the ha
“ I walked up St Andrew’s Hill in Christchurch. There was a small quake, and a woman tending her gard
“ 12:51pm 22 February 2011. I was in the kitchen. We had just had lunch. Matt was home sick, and on
“ 4:35am 4 September 2010. I dreamt a noise. A low hum, a rumble. I sat bolt upright in bed and y
“ On 4 September 2010, at 4:35am, a magnitude 7.1 earthquake, 37km away and 11km deep, smashed into Ch
“ I was on the fourth floor of the Cotton Building on the VUW campus in Wellington. On a normal day,
“ My experience of using a toilet after the earthquake when we had no power and no water. Portable toi
“ I was asleep when it hit but I think most people around the country were asleep when it did. I thoug
“ I feel a little fraudulent writing this, overlapping my rather trivial experiences with those who felt the full force in 2010 and 2011
“ It's been a long time. I go through phases of remembering and reliving that day, even now almost 6 years later..
“ It feels longer than six years since the February 2011 events, but to this day I still feel quite tearful thinking about it...
“ I know there was fear, despair and depression, but part of the truth is that some had none of this...
“ The earthquake struck and the buildings shook and wobbled then crumbled, with the class underneath
“ "Wake up! Wake up! earthquake EARTHQUAKE!"....
“ I shouted out, “Stop shaking the bed would you?”, to my older sister above me...
“ When it stopped we all felt sick like we were going to barf...
“ Fear hit me like lightning and I started to do what the earth was already doing, shaking...
“ I was in Sequoia 88 when the February 7.3 earthquake happened. 16 others and I left the building bec
“ My Earthquake experience When the September earthquake
“ EarthQuake of 2011. It was lunch time and everyone was outside having lu
“ Instructions: Find the missing full stops and capital letters. Find the paragraph breaks. Find the
“ Moving Target, painting by Marie Le Lievre - a personal interpretation by David Hopkins..
“ An email sent to friends on 5th September 2010.....
“ There were people standing by letterboxes looking distressed. I thought, "people will have died in this one."...
“ February 22nd is my birthday and I had planned to go into town with a friend that day...
“ September 4th 2010 was the day of a niece's wedding. It certainly turned out differently to what we all expected....
“ Isn't God Great. I have been wondering when will I be ever free from this pain that constantly surr
“ There were about ten or twelve workers in the original dunny cleaning team, but by attrition there remained a core group of whom, I mainly remember Lady Victoria and Maurice...
“ I got out of the car and put my wheelchair onto the ground as I was trained by Burwood staff to do when all of a sudden it struck...
“ A CTV rescuer remembers 22 February 2011...
“ My school Paparoa Street School, my family, my warm cosey house was all I thought about...
“ I waited, deciding it would be safer inside, only to be attacked by mannequins and clothing coming down around me...
“ I had some positive memories of the Christchurch earthquakes...
“ It felt like Christchurch had woken up, and was asserting itself to the rest of the world as a city of culture and character...
“ February 22nd 2011 changed the way that I think about life forever...
“ It was wonderful and clear a three way conversation and a very happy reunion to hear my Mother's voice...
“ Risingholme Orchestra and its continuing history post earthquakes – a tale of wandering minstrels...
“ He said that the hills rippled back and forth as the shock waves hit...
“ As several items throughout my room rattled I suddenly knew what it was...
“ We’ll start off with a funny story. In the afternoon of the big June quake we were in my motor caravan, stopped at the traffic lights...
“ When our city was struck with its first major earthquake, I was staying on the 24th floor of the 2nd highest building in Christchurch, the Hotel Grand Chancellor...
“ We were now part of a major historical event; it was weaving into our personal histories...
“ Our world cracked and roared, bucked and swayed, and our city began to fall down and apart...
“ This story really showed me what can happen if you think...
“ There are casualties this time. I wonder how we will recover...
“ I'm homesick for the UK - as I said, it's not the earthquakes, it's what we are becoming in our struggle to survive...
“ It's a chance to give something practical and tangible...
“ There is loss of life this time and... there is much more damage to already weakened old brick buildings, particularly in the city centre...
“ We asked police in a car near us if they knew what was happening there, but all communications were down...
“ Lots of people have, understandably, just gone elsewhere. But lots of amazing things happening too...
“ A nightmare of a night lying there awake wondering about all those people trapped...
“ They all stayed for several weeks - very full house, and nerve-racking after-shocks, but a lovely time really with everyone together...
“ It’s this kind of collaboration that makes me think – yes, Canterbury, we can do it...
“ There are some amazing stories of bravery and sacrifice emerging- everyone has a tale to tell...
“ Being half a world away it was difficult to grasp what had really happened back home. Feelings of helplessness, despair, anger and fear washed over me...
“ With the flooding from the Bexley area and the artesian well the water levels were slowly rising. I knew It wouldn't be long before it would enter my home. I could do nothing...
“ I'll never forget those faces and that aftershock...
“ My brother-in-law... telephoned with the news – “our house in Bexley – gone, your house in Horseshoe Lake – gone”...
“ Instantly I knew this was much worse than September, I stated to my husband 'hundreds of people might have died'...
“ As I got under the archway the chimney fell onto the roof and the force threw me over...
“ And, that is when it hit me; I had somehow survived a major Earthquake, and now, shock set in...
“ He didn't quite believe me, so I said again: "What are you doing there? It's an earthquake! Get out!"...
“ It was my mums birthday; February 22. She said it was the worst birthday present ever...
“ As I glided through the water, I saw the centre line of the lane wobble like a snake. I dismissed it...
“ This is what it’s like to be a refugee, it sucks big time...
“ Yes, there had been plenty of aftershocks but this was bigger, and it also broke a kind of detente...
“ I re-live and carry the earthquake legacy through the people I've met...
“ I was on the phone when the February 2011 earthquake happened. The phone went dead...
“ My mum was so worried bout me she thought I was dead!...
“ At times we had trouble getting into our street and home due to the rubberneckers... it was an invasion of privacy that we were helpless to do anything about...
“ I couldn’t get through to them on the phone and I was terribly concerned about their safety if the building had been damaged...
“ There were two or three seconds of silence, before the screams and sirens set in...
“ Two years on we have just moved out of the garage and into a rental...
“ I am here to stay. The best things about Christchurch remain intact...
“ Outside the air was vibrating with the screams of hysterical teenagers, the asphalt was cracked in many places and a thick clay-coloured liquid was pouring through...
“ Shelves were falling off the wall, crashing to the ground, the photocopier was moving around in the kitchen right behind me, glass was crashing to the kitchen floor...
“ For a long time I felt guilt for not being there, I know this isn't rational and I don't know how to explain it...
“ The experience has heightened our appreciation of life, our loved ones and lessened the need for material possessions or the silly fickle things in life...
“ The events of that day remain so vivid in my memory that it's almost like I am able to push the replay button on a full colour DVD system...
“ I'm always in the bathroom when 'they' come...
“ I felt like I was in a documentary about war and loss...
“ Holes were opening up in front of us, and as my husband couldn't walk, I knew we couldn't... abandon the car...
“ Feb 22nd 2011 12.51pm-6.3 Earthquake - How our lives changed in just 24 seconds!
“ We did all have to pack up and leave town for 3 days after February tho, as having no power and water was too hard with little children...
“ The enormity of what had happened was yet to be realised. Little did I know then what was to come months later...
“ After months of waiting we heard that our property would be in the Red Zone... we had had enough of our cold and broken suburb...
“ We camped out under the trees that night and consoled each other as we waited...
“ Now, I just really want to be part the Christchurch journey, into the future...
“ The first thing that comforted me was a hug from my adult son who had rushed home to see if I was ok...
“ A massive roar of movement, unimaginable to anyone who has not experienced it...
“ My heart goes out to all the people still in Christchurch. I know they will rebuild one day but honestly is it safe?...
“ The ground rumbled and our timber structure creaked. It was that unmistakable earthquake sound...
“ The chandelier was shaking above me so i decide if i stay here im a gonner...
“ The story of the 4th of September 2010. Written 2 months after the quake. Before the Feburary quakes...
“ I have asked all my kids if they think we should live somewhere else, their immediate response was "no...why? this is our home!!"...
“ It was nearly 5 hours later that we were back at the start, having witnessed devastation, liquefaction, shattered roads and bridges...
“ I could feel my mind trying to slide away from me so that I didn’t have to think about anything that had just happened...
“ It never occurred to us that such a major aftershock could hit Christchurch months down the track...
“ We finished our lunch when suddenly a report like that of an exploding bomb occurred and the whole building began to shake...
“ Seconds felt a lot longer than they are supposed to be during that earthquake...
“ I yell at the trapped woman to stand back then I ram the door with the chair...
“ My house got red stickered and then the land was red and a few weeks ago my house got demolished...
“ When we got to the theatre we found Peter lying on the floor obviously badly hurt & bleeding badly from head wounds...
“ We found ourselves lying half covered by debris and rubble from the collapsed roof, looking up at the sky above...
“ I wasn't aware of the tragic loss of life in the CBD until much later in the day when we listened to the radio. Even then, it didn't seem real....
“ If it was this bad in Timaru please please god let my family be alright in Chch...
“ Shelves were crashing to the ground and books spewing everywhere. Everyone was bent over and flopping about...
“ They were all talking at once, sharing their experiences of February one year ago...
“ We have already had 8 quakes over 5 in magnitude and a 6 in the last 3 weeks, and we are only up to the middle of the first month of 2012...
“ The building was condemed and has been since pulled down ...sadly.. as it was a part of history of our hospital...
“ What the hell happened? I have lived my worst fears...
“ NEK Minut, she hits, bottles, glass, plaster, pieces of roof tile, falling all around...
“ And so, it begins again.. Dec 23rd A new swarm, a new cluster....
“ This is the earth just doing what it does, what it has been doing for millions of years, and has a big shake up every so often...
“ I said “No, I am not going back in that house for anything.” So we stayed in the car until it became really light...
“ So we cleaned up the shop and opened the door and then the mad panic started... People coming in and buying everything they could get their hands on...
“ We had cordons and a lot of the locals thought the cordons were for everyone else, but not for them...
“ The worst was to come when we discovered that our bridesmaid and my best friend had been killed in the PGC Building...
“ I feel exactly the same now, then I felt before the earthquake. I don't think many young people were scared or felt any threat throughout the whole thing...
“ Up until the day of the earthquake for the year we've done 57 calls. From the Saturday through to Thursday night, just in that period alone, we'd done a 130 calls...
“ I went from this person sitting in my bed that went from 'What do we do? What do we do?' to running this... thing... this support, this earthquake recovery team...
“ As soon as her left arm was full of flowers, she came out to the little group of Cohns on the road. “Here’s a blue one for you!” she said... “It’s for grief and remembrance.”...
“ I was so anxious to leave the house that I threw open the ranch slider door of the lounge and jumped the side fence to the street, not bothering to open a garden gate..
“ I knew it was serious after the first 10 seconds. I rolled out of bed, pulling my wife with me to the floor...
“ I heard glass breaking and the car I was in rocked on its wheels. I cried...
“ I walk down the street now and I think 'Oh, there's a crack there, I wonder whether that was there before?'...
“ But it's nice to feel a sense of purpose now with work to go to and the comfort of sharing experiences with others...
“ It was a beautiful service - this "funeral" - a time to say goodbye to the past 12 months. The last of many firsts someone described it...
“ One family jumped in their car and drove off for fear of a Tsunami. Was the quake at sea, on land, who knew...
“ Everyone had left my floor... I felt totally abandoned – a horribly lonely feeling...
“ The hardest was having this sense of normality taken...
“ As I could only see the ceiling I watched in horror as it all moved back and forth...
“ That was when I opened the front door to a moonscape, a grey mess sweeping down and into the garage which had a layer of silt...
“ I could see the shock wave go across the Harbour... and it hit Quail Island and you could see it shaking and bits falling off...
“ People walking around and the dust and the ground moving and the chaos… it still is very vivid for me...
“ As far as priorities go, just realising that it's people that are important, things can be fixed or repaired, as long as everyone is OK...
“ My eldest daughter is so lucky that she wasnt sitting in the Dentist chair at 12.51pm that day...
“ I started backing my car up the hill to get away from the boulders that kept appearing even after the first rumble...
“ We got to know people that we didn't really know. We got to stay with people that we normally never would have stayed with because they were friends and you don't stay at your friends house when they live around the corner...
“ All I thought was: 'This is awesome! Finally something exciting has happened in Christchurch!' Looking back on it now, with the knowledge I now have, there is no way I would be that stupid given that situation again...
“ The way we lost our history will be part of our futures history...
“ The severe aftershocks don't worry me very much really, they are very, very similar to what happens at sea really, in rough weather...
“ Hannah and I... were being showered with glass jars just flying off the shelves, with all our spices, it smelled really nice, lots of spices breaking everywhere...
“ I told my Mum I loved her in my head. I actually said to myself "This is it"...
“ I was at school and I was frightened for my mum in town...
“ I tried to text her off my partners phone, but my hands were shaking so much, my partner and I decided to run to my mums work..
“ I sprinted to my car parked on the top carpark, I had to get my to children, I felt physically sick...
“ If it was not for my wife helping someone in trouble earlier in the day, I would have been the 17th victim from Canterbury Television lost in that building that day...
“ I turn around to see a huge cloud of dust where the Square was just minute ago...
“ We cling tightly to each other with each aftershock we feel. Slowly the daylight starts to arrive...
“ These little gestures of community mean so much more than all the official ceremonies could ever do. I’m glad I chose to go to the river – it was exactly the sort of peaceful, thoughtful moment I needed today...
“ It is the ... never getting out of "Quake mode" that takes its toll on you..
“ The whole house shook violently as the roof collapsed in places and...the chimney exploded onto me...
“ My dad was killed, after the earthquake, he passed away in front of me...
“ I ran to the kitchen not knowing what to do as I saw things being thrown violently onto the floor...
“ On the 22.2.11 I was at work on a 12 hr shift in the NICU at Chch Womens Hospital...
“ The bakery he suggested for lunch collapsed and three people lost their lives...
“ It was funny to me now because I was txting my friend about the quake we had this morning and saying when a next one comes I would treat it as a ride and say "Weeee"...
“ I was so scared I couldnt make any noise, I wanted to cry but i couldnt, my body wouldnt let me...
“ I wasn't directly involved in the earthquake, but the events of the day still had a significant impact..
“ 4th september 2010 ... 0435 Do you believe in the unknown?...
“ I was at work at Perpetual in the PGC building doing my Will at the time...
“ I tipped the baby's pram over to protect her from flying wine bottles....
“ Later on we were to learn that Heathcote Valley recorded one of the greatest ever ground accelerations in the world, 2.2g...
“ The tiles fell from the ceiling, which was quite scary as in the dark you dont know exactly what is happening...
“ I never new that when I went to work on the 22 feb that I would never return to my home...
“ First time in my life I ran, walked and ran in front of cars to beg for rides to my home, thank you to my hero's who got me there...
“ Since then i run no matter how small the aftershock or earthquake it just gets scarier and scarier...
“ As soon as we found the waimak bridge was open we started driving into town. We ran into gridlock, parked the car and half walked, half ran to where my mum worked...
“ I seemed to be the only one who wasn’t crying. Then I decide to become the one who took charge and ordered everyone out...
“ Now a year since the February 6.3 quake... it's still so fresh in our minds, I still have to hold back the tears sometimes...
“ We had 2 miracles in our family that day... We are so grateful that we survived and unscathed. We were so lucky...
“ I had to get out of the house, all around me it was divesting itself of substance, breaking into constituent parts that didn’t rain down on me, but came at me on a 90 degree angle...
“ Our neighbours made the best of it as we gathered chatting most hours of the day and nights on our back lawn for meals - amazing what you can cook on a bbq from fast defrosting freezers...
“ The roof caves in outside and i see people trapped. and now so am i, the door is blocked and i cant get out...
“ I wished my arms could stretch telescopically to cuddle them all, we huddled together and all I could do was reassure them it was brick dust, not smoke...
“ Lots of memories, a shift in priorities, not taking life for granted - all because on September 4th 2010 the earth decided to move...
“ I'm ashamed to say it, but my first instinct was to drive the two minutes to my Mum's work - to check that she was okay, but also because ... I just needed my Mum ...
“ It took a while to register it was an earthquake. The pictures on the walls all began to move and fall and I could hear things breaking...
“ 22nd February I was due to go to the hospital and have a scan as I was 4 months pregnant with my second child...
“ Song for the broken woman with the big warm heart...
“ We took cover under the table like our kids teach us and were soon annoyed to have been covered in spilled lemonade and beer...
“ I was in a Toyota Camri cab on Bealey Ave, picking up my next fare...
“ We were fortunate, because we were away and had quite a good holiday and weren't traumatised by the earthquake. So we felt we were in a good position to start helping...
“ We talked about earthquakes and... it gives us a reality check how we are living out lives. Are we awake to what we are doing to the planet, to each other, to ourselves?...
“ His name isn’t counted in the official count but there is no doubt in my mind that day killed my Dad...
“ I was at school on the soccer court when the earthquake happened...
“ I remember...my boss, who has only one functional arm, upside down, with his lunch all over him and this completely stoic, surreal expression on his face, or that might have been shock...
“ I lived through the war in England so really an earthquake is not that big a deal....
“ Looking back I think I was in a daze, I don't think I had understood what had really happened...
“ What I loved was looking out of the window at all the houses in town, and seeing all the little flickers of torchlight going around foundations, people all checking...
“ I was skyping my mother in England. She just saw on her computer that the whole of our room moved and me scream and grab Olive and then the power cut out ...My poor Mum!..
“ October 9th and 10th - Shaky night and morning in Christchurch...
“ We had a 5.3 at 10.30 followed by 11 more aftershocks of 4 or 3 magnitude between 10.30pm and 6am...
“ Everyone was unhurt but power went out...
“ After putting away the shopping I was sitting in the lounge talking when a large earthquake of a magnitude 5.6 struck at 1:00 pm...
“ 5.1 - largest since the 22nd February!...
“ Lack of sleep and lack of security not a good combination...
“ Now I’m playing taxi service to my kids - to go to physics class at Macdonald's and play music in a defunct factory because Linwood college is closed...
“ Poor buggers in Wellington - this is the BIG ONE!'...then we find out it is 40km west - WHERE?? No fault there...
“ Yippee! - we have phones, power and sewage!...
“ Not much sleep and a house to tidy up and kids who are grumpy and nervous...
“ We had to work our expo in Sydney and were sleep deprived and shell shocked I guess is the best way to describe it...
“ Bill has only had about an hours sleep I don’t know how he can keep going...
“ The strangest sight was the army “tanks” which were LOVs (Light Operational Vehicles) rolling along the road.
“ One person was killed in that shop, 181 others died in Christchurch that day...
“ You could just turn up and talk to people or you could feel like you were doing something...
“ I went back to bed with my Farmer's market jacket on and these boots. I thought I am gonna be ready if anything really bad happens...
“ We are shipping containers, but we don’t cross the seas. We do stuff on the dry land with impressive ease...
“ The aftershocks were like a home invasion - you close your curtains and you lock your door when you go to bed at night and they enter into your house without an invite...
“ It was great to come over to Lyttelton to do some work. It was great being busy...
“ After the initial shaking stopped, I become aware of my lack of clothing and my lack of eyewear...
“ This has been the most challenging 14 months of my life, I have lost friends who havent been able to cope with my health problems...
“ I experienced such a strong angry urge to thunder outside in my nighty and stamp up and down on the ground shouting...
“ I was at Christchurch Men's Prison when the first one happened - it was really scary...
“ Some say the force of the earth makes them feel powerless, but CERA has been far worse for me...
“ Everything is OK, I thought, Mrs Duck is back…
“ Never have her willows known more poignant cause to weep. Never have her people felt so hesitant to sleep ...
“ Jogging on down the hill and see that this is a serious historic quake, as stuff's shattered all over the place and below the houses a garage-sized boulder has bashed-in the Returned Services Building...
“ I just sat there cross-legged sucking away like a baby and watching the electricity lines thrashing, and cracking jokes with a man who also got to sit down there...
“ The trauma from that day in February never seems to leave. Everywhere you go, the damage caused from the February quake is apparent...
“ I... saw the whole steel fish tank stand, with all the full fish tanks, lean right forward and then back to the wall...
“ I know I have been blasé about the September quake, but I doubt there's a single soul who could be about this one...
“ A is for Aftershocks. It is normal to feel aftershocks, in other words new earthquakes smaller than the big ones...
“ Sooo much pain and waste and rubble So many tears and so much trouble So many tonnes of that dirty gray silt How can our city be .. rebuilt?
“ I was sitting at my desk in the back of our shop in Riccarton mall when I heard the roar...
“ How does a seventy-three year old get her left leg high enough to get out?...
“ I was sitting on the couch and watched as all of the china in the china cabinet just flew out, like a waterfall...
“ I was just too lazy to get out of my chair and get cracking to catch the 12.34 bus from Ferrymead... that was the bus that the wall fell on...
“ I just stared at the celling yelling at it in my mind "don't you dare fall down!!"...
“ It was so violent that even though power was still on in the flat I didn't feel I could see anything...
“ I saw them and group of other guys pull an elderly lady out of the Link Centre, and then they pulled out another man, but he didn't look so good...
“ Driving through the tunnel on way home for lunch... when all of a sudden the lights went out it was pitch black.
“ Ther are so many things that no one understands or understood, its so hard to move on from a tragic event like that...
“ Thought it was an aftershock from 4 September, but then the whole lecture theatre, at the bottom of the Commerce Building I might add, began shaking like crazy!...
“ I ... stood in the doorway, watching 3 upright freezers rocking towards me...
“ I was walking along High Street, almost at Cathedral Square when it happened. The thing that stays in my memory most of all is - oddly perhaps - the noise...
“ In retrospect I can hardly decide what came first to my mind that morning when the 7.1 earthquake hit our home...
“ Nearly thirty people escaped unhurt from the Caledonian Hall in Kilmore Street when it partly collapsed in the quake...
“ I wandered along Manchester St to witness buildings crashing with dust almost impossible to breathe...
“ I got off the bed but couldn't walk I tried to crawl but could not do that either...
“ February 22nd is a jumble, but three memories are very clear...
“ I couldn't contact my Mum and tell her I was ok...
“ This is my attempt to tell my story of what I witnessed and experienced over the following ten days...
“ The bubble broke, however, as my Mum and neighbour said that loads of buildings in the centre had come down and people were trapped...
“ "EVERYBODY OUT!" I heard a man yell over the screams and cracking ice type sounds, which I later found out to be bricks and glass breaking...
“ To me, the worst element of an earthquake... [is] the feeling of being utterly out of control, being at mother natures mercy...
“ It was the moment which I will never forget It was the worst moment of my life...
“ I was blown away when I watched the September quake on CNN. I stayed up all night and watched the news in the USA...
“ Im so thankful that my family and friend were okay...
“ Once 12:51pm struck the whole world just started shaking and screams came from every building there...
“ When I heard it had collapsed in the earthquake, I remembered that 1987 conversation with startling clarity. And cried...
“ On 4 September woke to find the house shaking then things fell off the cabinet...
“ Then when I tried to get out of my house all the doors were jammed because of the ceiling coming down and blocking the doors..
“ There were people screaming and trying to stay on their feet as the building was moving in a really strange way...
“ It became clear that it was a lost battle... and on advice of the police we made the decision to give up. It is one of the most difficult things I ever done.......
“ Then we heard my neighbour scream, i'll never forget that sound, it was the most terrifying noise i've ever heard...
“ I am now more aware of the consequences of a natural disaster and how it has such a major impact on peoples lives...
“ I finally managed to get the lounge ranch slider open and as I was running around the side of the house I couldn't help but notice what a beautiful moonlight night it was...
“ When the earthquake stopped, I first looked around and thought ‘this building stood up to that?’
“ Next thing, I looked up and saw the cashier's desk and the floor underneath it rolled towards me...
“ I realized when I was more awake that I wasn't dreaming that there was a war going on but that the soldier was actually my brother...
“ Then as us girls stood in line all you could see were the lights starting to shake, then girls started to scream...
“ A window smashed, a giant wooden cupboard fell over and the TV once again switched off...
“ On the 22nd of February there was an earthquake. I was at home by myself. The earthquake was scary...
“ That day will be in our memories forever and Christchurch will be closer together as a community...
“ When we heard the news that it was a shallow 6.3, there were a lot of tears in the room...
“ It was the 22nd of Febuary when the 6.3 earthhquake happened. I was on camp...
“ I was at the computer and as the entire ground shook I almost bounced off my seat...
“ Christchurch Girls High School finished early on February 22nd and we were let out from school at 12.00...
“ I remember waking up in the morning of the 4th of September thinking a train was just passing through..
“ The concrete guttering either side of me appeared to explode upwards sending a white powder & pieces of stone high into the air as if stuck by a mortar shell..
“ Disrupted lives – living with earthquakes. Diary entries from 2-4 July 2011
“ Disrupted lives – living with earthquakes. Diary entries from 15-23 June 2011
“ Disrupted lives – living with earthquakes. Diary entries from 17-20 May 2011..
“ Disrupted lives - living with earthquakes. Diary entries from April-early May 2011..
“ Trapped in a collapsed building...the story of 86 yr old Miss Grace Heyward...
“ On visits to other cities, we frown at brick exteriors, tall chimneys and ornate facades...
“ I can hear my long guttural screams, only pausing to take a breath before the next one begins...
“ Since 22 Feb 2011, I have seen integrity and character came to the forefront of humanity..
“ A blog entry written on Day 4 after the Feb Quake...
“ I wrote this on my blog the day I went in to the red zone...
“ I thought things were odd on February 22nd when I crossed the causeway to take my son to preschool in Redcliffs and the tide was incredibly high...
“ Linwood Cemetery had little damage after the September earthquake.... The February quake was a different matter...
“ Fortunately I keep a diary, not in the Pepys league but, sufficient as a reminder....
“ We were crossing Cathedral Square about to head down the ramp to cross Worcester Street into Chancery Lane..when the earthquake struck...
“ As the house moved faster than I could run, time slowed down...
“ This warm, sunny, autumnal, Friday afternoon my grief for this inanimate, nothing of a place stings...
“ The shaking was so bad I hugged a large concrete pillar nearby while I thought "what should I do?"...
“ I was about to head to my first class for the year at uni then all of a sudden bang it hit...
“ Written 18 March: Our pre-quake routine has not yet returned, and is not likely to for some time...
“ Day 7 February 2011: Holy sheep! I was not able to get home... it looked like Sumner was totally blocked off
“ Day 4: On Friday, my husband returned to work and I rode with him in his 4WD...
“ 24 February (Day 3)...it seemed half the city had also awakened 'early' in order to get to the petrol pumps...
“ During Tuesday's quake, the car in that space ended up at the receptionist's desk inside our office...
“ I wrote this in the days following the 22 February quake. We really thought we had dodged a bullet...
“ Normal changed for ever on that February day...
“ Even after being though so 8000+ earthquakes and many tough times, Christchurch is still my home
“ Lest we forget: Christchurch and its People - an outside view...
“ I was in the ACC building (2nd floor) on Oxford Terrace when the February quake struck...
“ I saw the glass shelves fly with all the stock and then the lights went out followed by loud crashing noises and I felt an excruciating pain all down my left leg...
“ I was on my own, just crossing the small bridge at Kilmore Street when the car started to shake violently...
“ I tried to regain my balance and realised it wasn't me that was knocking about, it was our house...
“ What seemed like a normal day turned into absolute horror at 12:51pm when a 6.3m earthquake struck...
“ June 13th, work in construction was doing crack injection inside the elevator shaft standing on top on top of the elevator at Northlands Mall...
“ I remember when the 6.3 earthquake hit on the 13th of June 2011...
“ It was like I imagine the Blitz was like...
“ I just arrived with some colleagues for the New Zealand Society for Earthquake Engineering Seminar...
“ Entries from my blog after the February earthquake..
“ Entries from my blog after the September earthquake...
“ Someone's voice kept repeating, "Stay calm, keep down, hold on" only to find it was my own. ....
“ Most of the days were spent alongside my fellow students with my fleet of machines regarded as the ‘unofficial’ heavy machinery support for the Student Volunteer Army...
“ I was about to put away my lunch box when it happened...
“ I was in my final year of high school in 2010. Like everyone else, I lived through September 4th...
“ Mother Nature came to call in September Twenty Ten, She came to call not just this once but time and time again...
“ During the whole day of February 22, I couldn't stop thinking about 9/11....
“ The day of the earthquake was Peter's first day at his work...
“ I was in the Art Gallery for the 22/02/2011 quake...
“ When it was over we bolted down the stairs outside..there was screaming and crying everywhere we decided to leave...
“ Then the earthquake struck and then we all turned into a turtle and we saw the front of the arts centre come crashing down..
“ He dropped me at my street and I stumbled down it, dreading returning and wishing I were there already...
“ We know now what that huge bang is...
“ I was living at South Brighton Campsite when the earthquake happened and I was in the shower...
“ A fateful week in Christchurch
“ I don’t know who is shaking more, me or the ground...
“ I will forever keep all the text messages on the fateful day as part of the healing process...
“ I ...crawled to my son, he was sitting there on the floor arms stretched out to me, screaming with a look of absolute horror on his face...
“ September 4th 2010. I was woken by what I thought was the worst shaking I have ever felt in my life...
“ I have worked in civil defence for decades... but what l experienced in Christchurch... left this hardened veteran with a new respect for the word fear...
“ Then I looked out the window - and watched the CTV building fall down...
“ I sleep nicky-noody and was awake when the September 4th quake hit...
“ I was at the Public Hospital with my mother and youngest son. My mother was sitting in a wheelchair...
“ I had to remind myself to breathe and get on with it...
“ On the 22nd of February I was working in the Allan McLean building on the corner of Colombo Street and Oxford Terrace...
“ It looked like the crowds walking home in New York on 9/11...
“ February 22 is a day I will never forget. It was supposed to be the day I became a father, instead it will forever be the day the earth roared...
“ September the 4th was scary, I was 4 months pregnant and remember waking up wondering what was happening....
“ I watched as the Volcano Cafe started disintegrating...
“ I have been involved in several vehicle collisions, fallen off a cliff, been lost in the bush... but 22 February was the first time in my life I felt dread and feared for my life...
“ It hit with an almighty force. All i could think was, no. no, not again...
“ On February 22 I wasn't even in Christchurch. My company was hosting a large conference in Rotorua...
“ I was walking alongside the Avon River, adjacent to the Student Association building, when I felt the ground jump under my feet...
“ It was all too much for me and I needed to go to the toilet. "Please stop!" I bleated to my friend...
“ There were cracks in the road, liquefaction in the park across the river and general bedlam...
“ This week has been the longest, yet shortest of my life...
“ He's 10. He doesn't speak. He gets hungry. We knew he was OK from an early text from the school but communications after that were so difficult...
“ I looked out the window onto Colombo Street below. I saw crushed cars and injured people...
“ Then suddenly the lights flicked off and my whole world smashed into little pieces...
“ It was like a bomb had been dropped on chch...
“ Dedicated to those lost souls victims of a day from hell! 22/2/2011...
“ The concrete floor spilt open at my feet spewing liquifaction up, the ceiling exploded raining down with huge roofing tiles...
“ Feb 22nd, I was at work on 4th floor of a hotel cleaning a guest room...
“ I was just about to get into the swimming pool at QEII... when suddenly there was a huge rumbling sound like a truck was rolling through the building...
“ My 22.02.11. And maybe it’s time to tell my story, which I’ve found hard to write down until now...
“ 4 September 2010. I remember vaguely thinking that the noise on our roof sounded like hundreds of heavy footed birds landing on the corrugated iron...
“ I was in Australia for the Sept and Feb quakes, Melbourne for the first one and Brisbane for the second...
“ It looked and sounded like something out of a horror film with all the car alarms going off and dust and rubble everywhere.
“ I remember seeing that the Link Centre had fallen in. I turned away; I couldn't bear to think about the people inside...
“ After the first quake settled and we were wandering the neighbourhood checking on others I was struck by the stars...
“ I just sat there in shock while everything around me fell to the floor and the road filled up with water...
“ We drove up driveway got out of car and WHAM it hit...
“ My husband and I were asleep in our bed near Mount Somers when the September 4th quake struck...
“ My boyfriend, being from Wellington said 'Calm down, it's just a little earthquake.'...
“ It hit with no warning. It was like a bomb had been dropped on Christchurch....
“ I was on a Ship berthed in the Port, when the rumbling sound started and just kept building...
“ I guess my biggest achievement would be that I've learn't to live with the earthquakes...
“ I remember being hit in the back of the head by machines and this woman beside me had a head injury...
“ On Friday 3rd September, 2010 I was at work.. in the UK...
“ I lost my workplace, I lost my possessions, I lost my sanity, but thankfully we did not lose any students or staff...
“ What has changed for me in Christchurch where I have lived all my life after a year of nearly 8,000 earthquakes and aftershocks...
“ Bang! February 22nd, I found myself spread eagled in my third floor office doorway...
“ My brother, his partner, 5 week old daughter and myself were walking down the street ...when me and my brother were slammed through a glass window and the building came down on top of us...
“ My class was just about to do an assignment for our pets when the February earthquake happened...
“ This is my daughter's story about what she experienced on June 13th...
“ I just sat in the chair I was in, holding onto a filing cabinet that was beside me for fear it would fall on my supervisor who had gotten onto the floor....
“ Then suddenly... BAM! No build up, just straight into violent up and down shaking...
“ As the survivors came out one by one we assessed them, bandaged them, kept them warm and moved to the next person...
“ For me it didn't really seem real until we got back to Christchurch and saw the traffic chaos that ensued and also the the damage that was evident...
“ When the earthquake struck, I was at my desk on Level 15 of the Forsyth Barr building...
“ 4 September 2010, I knew I had to get to the doorway. The violent shaking woke me, I grabbed my teddy bear (the important stuff!) and ran...
“ It wasn't like riding big waves, or being blown around in a high wind. It was the sharpest, most violent kind of shaking; as though the house sat on some giant mechanism of limitless force...
“ It hurts so much to see our city in tatters, to know friends I have worked with are missing... now confirmed dead...
“ I remember thinking that I should get under my desk because there were two more floors above me but there was no way I could move...
“ That normal day at school turned into my worst nightmare, I thought I was going to die...
“ I'll never forget the terrified expressions of three businessmen who were grasping each other like elephants holding tails...
“ If we had gone thru the top of Lyttelton one hour after we left we probably be dead now...
“ When the adrenalin rush takes over, images in your mind flash pass with incredible speed..
“ It starts like a regular aftershock then escalates to nigthmare proportions...
“ Really, in spite of all the damage to our home, life is not that bad...
“ Humanity rose up and the sense of community was overwhelming and striking...
“ I heard a terrifying rumbling noise coming from behind me. The ground rolled under me, and as the shock wave traveled down the road it extinguished every street light...
“ a friend and myself sat up a gazebo on the grassy flat in Lytteton, with tables and chairs, water and snacks and a sign "Join us, have a chat"...
“ I luckily missed the falling debris of the chimneys coming down. After helping bloodied, stressed, surrounding neighbours it took 5 and 3/4 hours to get home, usually a 20 minute drive...
“ Woken up on September the 4th the house being bounced up and down...
“ It has been a long (almost) 12 months since our world was turned upside down - (shaken not stirred)...
“ Just paying by card for a full tank of petrol when the Feb quake happened, we did not know if the payment went through...
“ On September 4th we were in France when a text from home said they just had an earthquake...
“ Its the stuff of nightmares and potentially could necessitate a life time of counselling to overcome...
“ Forty seconds of Mother Nature at her best was the most action our bedroom has ever seen. Rolling earth coupled with thunderous destruction...
“ I woke first at 4.35am to a terrific noise and banging, the power was off, the house was pitching in all directions at once and I was being thrown around in the bed...
“ The whole length of the Styx River was like a mini Moses and the Red Sea episode - it split down the middle, like a giant 1 meter square post had been dropped along its whole length...
“ How much in my day-to-day life now evolves around where I am, what’s around me, where I park my car, what I have with me, who is around, where emergency exits are, asking myself if there’re torches around...
“ I remember thinking to myself - “It’s payday, I need to get some groceries, and register my car. I’ll do that when hubby gets home.” Yeah Right...
“ It all began on Saturday 4th September 2010... my 38th birthday...
“ At the supermarket in Timaru, I’m wondering if I stand out like a sore thumb in borrowed men’s cargo pants and pink girlie op shop t-shirt...
“ I would rather tell my story with two poems: one about the shock, the other about losing the familiar places and associations we have with the buildings being demolished...
“ Her school is in the middle of town... when they were evacuated onto the street they had to take her past people with blood on them and other people that she said were just lying on the road...
“ Early hours of the morning woken to what I thought was a huge gust of wind blowing around the house, but then side to side in our bed, then up and down then the noise, that evil noise...
“ I like to keep abreast of the news so switched on the early news on TV. Life changes...
“ 22 Feb 1pm, sitting in traffic. Desperately trying to reach my kids. I had no phone coverage, no way to contact them...
“ I dived under a desk where I stayed with bits of the ceiling, computer monitors, bricks from the external walls and glass all smashing on the desk above me...
“ I was driving on Feb 22 when the 6.3 struck.... I had my 3 kids in the back, I thought we had been hit from the side and I was driving up and down the gutter, until the shaking really kicked in...
“ I was lifted across the room and thrown into a big speaker and then the chimney fell through the roof and the fridge which normally takes two good men to carry was thrown across the other side of the room...
“ The fear... the fear that family and friends were working in town, the fear of not having my child with me...
“ The sound [was an] unbelievable roar then the most violent shaking I had ever felt...
“ 12:51pm, 22nd February 2011.... a day I will never forget, a day my worst fears came to the fore...
“ When I awoke on September 4th, with the house juddering and shimmering, I staggered out of bed, was thrown against the wall, desperately trying to find the phone...
“ When he finally made it he sat down and burst into tears. I don't know what emotion was stronger the shock of seeing my my husband crack or the relief he was alive...
“ The quake was loud, if I looked down the road 100m I would have seen the CTV building come down, but I didn’t, I just ran...
“ BOOM it hit, the boat shed bridge was going up and down, people running... and at that point we knew we had to get back up to see what was happening...
“ There is nothing more terrifying than the power of Mother Nature, there is no negotiation, no empathy, just the sheer release of energy...
“ I've lived in Christchurch all my life always a safe place to be in hopefully will rebuild again to something really beautiful...
“ I woke to hear the loudest sound roaring through the bedroom. Everything was juddering – dadada, dada dada, dadada, on and on it went, rising in crescendo, until you could not imagine anything being able to be louder...
“ My city is levelled, and all I can say at the moment, bulldoze them all, only the cathedral needs to be rebuilt. I’m all for heritage but not at this cost...
“ There were more than 20 earthquakes in less than eight hours that day, we felt them all - it sends so much adrenalin into your body you almost become physically ill...
“ I found myself huddled against the retaining wall in my back garden, listening to the sounds of walls collapsing, breaking glass and the ominous boom, boom, boom as huge boulders came bouncing down the hillsides around me...
“ I remember bouncing on the ground as if I was on a trampoline. Curling up in a ball was all I could do to protect myself...
“ We are reminded of 9/11. Earthquakes and aftershocks, the earth's groaning and travailing, reverberations and revolutions are heard round the world. We tremble at something bigger than all of us...
“ I opened my front door and saw total devastation. Everything we owned seemed to be on the floor, lying broken and smashed...
“ We waited about 3-4 minutes then walked towards the Borders exit, people were crying, hugging each other talking to each other and confused...
“ The long walk began... the walk through destruction and liquefaction, hoping against hope that our house was OK...
“ September 4th 4.30am I woke up to a roaring noise, thinking that the kids had turned the TV up incredibly loud...
“ It was then that my sister in Canada called my cellphone. They had seen the reports on the news already about the big earthquake in Christchurch... It was at that point that the first big aftershock hit, the ground shaking and rolling while I was talking to my sister.
“ I told him that there had been a lot of damage in the city, that they thought people would have died this time...
“ I picked my daughter up, held her in a rugby hold and ran down the hallway trying my best to miss the glass...
“ Bronte said to me “I got a brick mum”, as she pulled a brick off the wall of our house. This was the catalyst to finally leave...
“ Concrete dust and a black hole through the fire escape door. Later I saw people climbing down that void, floor to floor using fire hoses. We choose not to do the same, in case there is more concrete above ready to come down...
“ I had enough time to realise one literally does hang one’s head with despair. A body going limp as hope drains away...
“ The house is shaking and I am hearing things falling down in the living room. Wow! This is a biggie and it' been so quiet lately, too...
“ Listening to the radio was really devastating as I was hearing the most horrendous stories and just started crying...
“ It was as if a 747 was running up its engines right outside, the noise was phenomenal!...
“ Outside was staggering to see, in all directions there were collapsed buildings, dust clouds, huge piles of rubble... zombie-like people stood with looks of amazement, and screams from trapped people...
“ It was so frightening, especially when all we had was live footage on the TV...
“ As we went through the back door the boy asked what the dust was. I said it was fog, not realising it was our city that floated around us...
“ Can't phone my parents. Worry, stress, fear. People are dead or trapped. Kids all ok. Thankful for being here, home, safe. Hope others are ok too...
“ Suddenly there ready and waiting was my Mum. She said she had to walk from Linwood, over the Bridle path...
“ The quake was so strong that the desk got away on me and down on my head came a shelf full of books...
“ I pray that no-one has been injured or killed again and wonder just how much more Christchurch and its people can take...
“ I look over at my daughter and see... the TV rocking backwards and forwards behind her. Instinct kicks in and I run towards her...
“ After September fourth, there was a strange, mystical sense of something magical, of somehow being touched by angels... something more malevolent had hit us this time...
“ Somewhere, in the midst of trying to keep my balance and get across my room, I realised this was a massive, massive earthquake...
“ I could hear the children screaming in the classrooms, I kept calling out 'turtle turtle' like we'd practiced but they were too scared to remember what to do...
“ As I sat under the doorway I could see cracks appearing in the hallways before my eyes and the whole building rumbled and creaked...
“ The real shock came the next day when at around 11am we got power back and were able to turn on the television and see just how bad things really were...
“ Thankfully, there was my family, Christchurch as a whole...
“ The quakes may tear the land apart, but it joined the people together...
“ I got a call from work to say be in town in 30mins to get on a helicopter to go to Christchurch to help with the rescue effort...
“ My heart stopped for a moment and I looked over at my husband. There was no discussion; we just knew we were leaving the house...
“ 22 Feb - we were in la-la land as we thought 'gosh that was a big after shock'...
“ An hour after the February quake, I found myself standing on our glass splintered deck, looking across Lyttelton Harbour at the Timeball lying in ruins...
“ My daughter Jessica and her husband Hamish were driving to Christchurch Women's Hospital to have their baby induced when the 6.3 earthquake struck...
“ 41.5 weeks pregnant and on the way to the hospital for induction, do we have a flat tyre? No, people are running for their lives and buses were swaying...
“ I have had a lot to tell about the carnage and effects the earthquakes have had on me, my family, and my city. But mostly, it is what it has done to the pysche that is the most difficult to understand...
“ The Christchurch earthquakes are the worst things that have ever happened to me and my family. I'm sure they have foreshortened all our lifespans...
“ The second floor of a Southern Cross Endoscopy wing was rolling and bouncing. People, TVs, pot plants, magazine racks, filing cabinets, computers and monitors fell over amidst screams of patients and staff. Then silence...
“ My lunchtime latte and muffin had just been put on the table at Coffee Culture in Sumner, a few seconds before the rumbling and shaking started. The building shuddered and groaned, and it seemed that the world outside was destroying itself.
“ When it finally stopped there was not a sound for about 5 seconds then the silence was broken by a million alarms going off.
“ September 4, 2010 - 4:36am: Cat awakes us... probably cold and wants to get in the bed...Ohh, another coal train rumbling by... but the noise seems to come from all around us? No.... It's an earthquake...
“ I was walking back to my desk and was 3-4m away when i realised this was more than just another aftershock. I went to take 2 big strides to get under my desk and hit a wall which was in completely another direction!
“ When I woke up on Sept 4th, I knew I was in the middle of a big quake. Instinct took over and I headed for the nearest door. I held on to the door frame as the floor bucked and heaved underneath me.
“ I hit the dance floor, literally. I was pretty drunk but not THAT drunk & then everyone started screaming & pushing towards the door
“ At 4.30 am our family of three (two adults at and one teenager) two guests and our two dogs ended up in the car driving for high ground after being shaken violently awake.
“ The September quake was all a bit of a dream. It was such a foreign feeling being woken up by an eathquake.
“ I'm from Christchurch but live and work in Wellington. When the February 2011 earthquake struck I was at work. I first heard that something had happened from my Mum... I knew something was really wrong because I've never heard her sound so terrified...
“ We all dived under the desks and held on. Roof panels fell in and glass walls shattered. It seemed to go on for ages, not sure how long it really was. When the shaking stopped someone yelled "Get outside". We all scampered down the fire-escape where we got to see the full damage of the building.