Fathers Day

Well we have had many more shakes since the original big Quake, but they have not been anywhere near as frightening, and I managed to get some sleep, although did wake many times.
Today being Fathers Day, family were going to come in but plans were changed, and son Ashley and granddaughter Holly came for the morning. They had crossed the Waimakariri Bridge and could see some terrible cracks in the road that is a by pass off the motorway to go to Marshlands, and they encouraged us to go and have a look.
It is like you see on TV, but this was for real. We were glad we were not on that road when it was happening, but there were about 12 horses in the paddocks right next door, who must have been terrified. Their owners were with them soothing them and feeding them. There was a lot of sludge and muck in their paddock which had oozed up through the cracks.

We then had to go into town to check on a friends commercial building. There were many road diversions on the way and it took us a while to get there, and had to go some of the way on foot, to find that it was cordoned off. We asked the Police and security guard if the could step inside the barrier to see if there was a notice on the door, but they were not allowed inside the cordon either. We could see that it had a green sticker on the door.
Eventually we found out that this was to say that the building had been checked from the outside and it was safe to enter. That was all we needed to pass on to our friend, so left and went home again. We saw chimneys and walls and fences down in the suburbs, but of course we never saw the main devastation which is in the centre of town.