To our NZ friends: hope you are all OK after the earthquake!

[VNwalking]

To all our Forum members in Aotearoa--some of you've had quite a night of it, from the look of things.
I hope everyone is OK. Take care of each other and please be safe. Thinking of you all with heartfelt good wishes...
Kia kaha!

 

[GettingThere]

To all our Forum members in Aotearoa--some of you've had quite a night of it, from the look of things.
I hope everyone is OK. Take care of each other and please be safe. Thinking of you all with heartfelt good wishes...
Kia kaha!

Thank you Viranani! We're fine up here in Auckland (though it was felt even here) but really feeling for friends in the South Island and Wellington. And the 1200 tourists stranded in Kaikoura which is totally cut off, as are other smaller places. I can only imagine they'll have to airlift people out, the roads are just - gone. Incredible damage to roads large and small, as well as homes and farms. Thoughts are with the families of those who lost their lives, while being so thankful casualties weren't more.

Thinking of forum members in the quake areas, dealing with this yet again.
xxx

EDIT: Just heard the Navy is sending a ship to Kaikoura to help evacuate. Go the Canterbury!

 

[wayfarer]

Stay safe, our thoughts are with you.

 

[VNwalking]

It was felt in Auckland, @GettingThere? !! (500kms away...is...Burgos to Santiago....)

Friends in Wellington and the Wairarapa report being quite shocked by the strength of this one...so here's to you, @AlwynWellington (and anyone in the Upper South Island)--we're thinking of you.

 

[Kiwi-family]

Curiously enough.....the first suspicion I had of anything happening was when I received a message this morning from someone I met on my first camino asking if we were OK.
Then I checked the news.
It's special to be part of a global community.

 

[gittiharre]

Thank you Viranani.
I woke up during the night, not sure why and then felt uneasy., not sure why. We live in Auckland, so a long way from the quake.
NZ is not called the "Shakey Isles" for nothing.

 

[Wokabaut_Meri]

Yes thinking of all our friends 'across the Ditch'.

Always quick to come to us Aussies aid in difficult times.

 

[VNwalking]

Yeah, you guys hate each other on the cricket pitch (and we won't even mention rugby teams...), and make all sorts of jokes about each others' collective intelligence...but when the chips are down on either side of the ditch the truth is out.
Admit it. You actually DO love each other.
(On the Camino I really enjoy the good natured ribbing back and forth that invariably happens when Kiwis and Aussies find themselves together...)

 

[cross6011]

Thank you for your good wishes and kind thoughts, Viranani. It was a wild, shaky, scary night in Wellington but thankfully my house was OK with just a few things falling off shelves, and I'm not in the tsunami zone, so didn't have to evacuate. A group of neighbours came over and stayed till morning, but there was no sleep. We're all looking after each other, especially as the aftershocks are frequent and big.

I'm just back from walking the Le Puy route ... it's good to be home for this ;-)

 

[VNwalking]

Take care, @cross6011!
I'm glad to know it was no worse for you and your neighbors--and that you're not hearing about this along the way, someplace very far away from home.
And how wonderful you're taking care of each other.

 

[KinkyOne]

Hang on Kiwis!!!
I just tried Vegemite for the first time yesterday and you have all my sympathys

 

[VNwalking]

K1, you were trying the wrong stuff!
No need for sympathy--because in NZ Marmite is the spread of choice.
Shortages after the Chch earthquake caused a Marmageddon...but fortunately this quake will not disrupt the supply.

 

[KinkyOne]

K1, you were trying the wrong stuff!
No need for sympathy--because in NZ Marmite is the spread of choice.
Shortages after the Chch earthquake caused a Marmageddon...but fortunately this quake will not disrupt the supply.

I tried that one too

 

[Wokabaut_Meri]

Yeah, you guys hate each other on the cricket pitch (and we won't even mention rugby teams...), and make all sorts of jokes about each others' collective intelligence...but when the chips are down on either side of the ditch the truth is out.
Admit it. You actually DO love each other.
(On the Camino I really enjoy the good natured ribbing back and forth that invariably happens when Kiwis and Aussies find themselves together...)

How timely was this!
A FLEET of international warships is bypassing Auckland's historic naval celebrations and heading for Kaikoura to assist with the earthquake response. The fleet includes the first United States warship to visit New Zealand in 33 years.
NewsMail

HMAS Darwin is on its way!

 

[GettingThere]

How timely was this!
A FLEET of international warships is bypassing Auckland's historic naval celebrations and heading for Kaikoura to assist with the earthquake response. The fleet includes the first United States warship to visit New Zealand in 33 years.
NewsMail

HMAS Darwin is on its way!

Yes, isn't it wonderful! They were all arriving here for a celebration, and now ships from the Australian, Canadian, Japanese and US navies have diverted to help with the evacuations. This kind of international cooperation is fantastic to see.

 

[VNwalking]

This is the best use of warships imaginable. I love it! And I bet the crews do too . Obviously it's not just the Auspices and Kiwis. We ALL love each other.
Wonderful.

 

[Kanga]

I am feeling for all my New Zealand friends, especially those on the South Island, and hoping you all stay safe and are not too traumatised. Stay strong so you can keep beating us at rugby. It's good to be humbled occasionally (note the use of the word "occasionally").

Australians and New Zealanders are like siblings really. Friendships between nations don't get much closer.

 

[nzPhreadde]

Yeah, we were shaken awake by the quake, although we were ~250km from the epicentre, and didn't get much sleep for the rest of the night. We had a son & his wife, dog & cat come to stay as tsunami refugees (they are two blocks from the beach) for a few hours. Three of the whanau are working from home as their offices are closed for various reason related to the earthquake.

For those interested in the technical side of the earthquake and it's affects on the countryside, go to http://info.geonet.org.nz/ where are our friendly earthquake experts down this way give us all the good oil on what happened.

The earthquake can be loosely described as an 8 megaton bomb going off ~20km below the earth's surface, and it did some pretty dramatic things on the surface.

But life goes on, we've been through this before, and will no doubt do so again. As was said above, it's a small cost for living in a beautiful land created by a couple of large bit sof the earths crust colliding with each other.

Blessings, Peter

 

[mazgirl]

Thank you for your kind thought, one thing about us Kiwi's we just bounce back dig in and get on with helping out where we can

 

[VNwalking]

Thank you for your kind thought, one thing about us Kiwi's we just bounce back dig in and get on with helping out where we can

Kia ora, @mazgirl, I used to live in Taupo--so how could I not think of everyone?

For those interested in the technical side of the earthquake and it's affects on the countryside, go to http://info.geonet.org.nz/ where are our friendly earthquake experts down this way give us all the good oil on what happened.

Thank you for this link, Peter!
May you and yours be safe and well...

Helping each other out is something Kiwis excel at. Which is one of the blessings of living in a not-too-big country on a few islands in a vast sea, I guess. The rest of the world seems to have forgotten that we are all in the same boat--riding on a bit of rock zooming through space. One of the Camino's greatest gifts is to remind us of our common humanity--and how small the boat really is.