You shooke me all night long!

Mother Nature that is!!

Living in Christchurch just isn't that great any more!

After being woken by several medium sized aftershocks during Christmas Night and having to cuddle a child and a cockatiel back to sleep, I got to work boxing day morning.

After being there all of half an hour a huge 4.9 after shock shook the store, very shallow, and centered close to where I work. The power went out with a bang, and product flew from shelves.

Then came a sound that I originally thought was many cars coming off the road or smashing in to each other, which I found out after running in to the street was actually the building next to us collapsing! I swear that is the most terrifying noise I have or ever wish to hear.

Many boxing day shoppers were evacuated from malls, and the street I work on was closed off because of the damage and collapse of close buildings so I went home, thank god.

The after shock was so large it actually triggered its own after shocks, so what we felt for the next several hours were medium aftershocks from an aftershock!

As you can see, this building has definitely seen better days, what I believe happened, was that the top story collapsed in to the bottom, in turn pushing outwards and the whole frontage collapsed.

This isn't the best photo I took, but I think it shows the most. In it you can see how falling debris actually bent, and broke the light fixture off the lamp post, you can also see the veranda bent and buckled at the top, the frontage collapsed, and the rubble littering the street. Understandably it made quite a large noise.

Just when we thought it was all over Quake City quakes once again! I AM OVER IT!