5th Anniversary of Christchurch Quake

Today is February 22nd, the 5th anniversary of the (first of many) earthquakes that devastated Christchurch.

There has been plenty written about the big picture so I'll add a few words about the little picture I see around here.

I'm still in the same house I was in on that day.  It was repaired over five months in the first half of 2014 (thanks to the guys from Clive Barrington Construction - it was worth the wait to get you).    Due to some quirk of geology and construction, it stood up pretty well compared to our neighbours.

Lets talk about them...

Three  sections to the North, the retaining walls have been slowly repaired over the last 8 months or so. I hope a house will start going up there soon, and eventually the lovely family who lived there will be able to return before our children leave home.

Two houses North, the house is clad in its second lot temporary building paper.  The house will eventually have to be demolished. The people who live there have finally got fed up with waiting and are looking elsewhere.  I don't blame them.

Our neighbour to the North still lives there, still waiting for the partial rebuild, partial repair that is the latest word on what will happen.

The two houses to the South are both unoccupied, and becoming more and more derelict. They will both have to be demolished.

On the other side of the lane, the small cottage has been repaired, the other two houses are liveable but not repaired yet.

So don't tell me to move on, or scold me for being negative and tell me that things are pretty much sorted - they have hardly started, and I'm not looking forward to the noise, dirt and disruption that is yet to come.

Nature abhors a vacuum