Some Light Out of the Dark, 5 years on

Today marks five years since the first of a series of earthquakes that has changed Canterbury so much.

I'll never forget being shaken out of my bed in the early hours of that Saturday morning. I've never been so fearful, but when the shaking stopped our lives weren't turned upside down. Our house was fine, we were fine. But many weren't.

Five years on from the September quake and those that followed, thousands of lives have been affected. Some still live in wrecked, broken houses, some are still arguing with their insurers for compensation or for work to be completed. It's fair to say that for many life has literally been turned upside down.

Like so many other stone buildings across the province, the Church of the Holy Innocents at Mount Peel was damaged in the September earthquake, so it only seemed fitting that today's blip was taken there. The main window above the altar has now been repaired and sits in the Quake City exhibit in downtown Christchurch, waiting to come home to Mount Peel once the repairs to the structure have been completed. 

Some windows in the church still remain, like this one, the Mary Grace Caroline Lysaght window depicting Faith (shown here) and Charity with the Christ child sitting on a rainbow.