Earthquake Report, 31 March
I haven’t done one of these for a while—I have been focusing on trying to get back into some sort of everyday routine, as well as completing a very intensive Book Month tour to Wakatipu and Southland as a guest of the Dan Davin Literary Foundation (but more on that tomorrow.)
The thing about going away is that it brings everything you’ve been doing and—to be honest—enduring, into sharp focus. The afternoon I arrived in Queenstown I felt dislocated, lost … I dropped keys and papers and took wrong turns—not like me at all—and shied away from the cheerful, noisy flocks of people along the Lake Wakatipu waterfront.
Coming back to Christchurch was hard, too, because of course nothing had changed. The road still boasts all the dips and rises of an old river bed, as does my driveway; the sewer is still “missing in action” and I heard today that up to 1/3 of Christchurch’s fulltime workfoce could be out of a job as a direct result of the quake.
One third—and this is NZ’s second largest urban area. Scary stuff, indeed, particularly given the international economic situtaion.
On a more personal note, although nothing changed while I was away, something has happened this week—an EQC building team is coming tomorrow to take down our chimney and weatherproof/secure the gap it leaves (full repair will happen later.) I do think this is a good thing, on balance, one that needs to happen, but it took pretty much the whole day to clear the affected room ( I have been warned that there will be a lot of dust) and during that time my mood swung between ‘grumpy’ and ‘down.’ I am tired of packing up my life. I know the chimney needs to come down but I also know that I’m going to have to live with the ‘patch’ in my living room wall for a considerable time to come. It just felt tough, and very wearing—and knowing that the chimney is only the tip of the earthquake repair iceberg doesn’t help.
I know we all want to return to “normal”—yet normal as we once knew it is now a foreign country. We here rumours, but so far no one has a visa to go there and return with accurate reports.
If you ever want some time away you can come stay with us in Sunny Dunedin any time…
Ditto for the beach in Paraparaumu. We have a spare room you’re welcome to.
We’re all still thinkign about you all down there. You haven’t strayed from the front of our minds.
Thanks Anthony and Aimee—and in fact Queenstown, Gore and Invercargill all turned on some sunshine for me last week, so I do not rule out “Sunny Dunedin.” Yet although going away is undoubtedly very nice, in many ways it makes returning to life in poor, battered Christchurch tougher because you have to re-adjust to what wits here are calling “the new normal.” I believe, however, that I may in fact be heading to ‘Wellywood’ before the month is out so that may translate as ‘time out’—although going to Wellington for timeout from earthquakes may qualify as an oxymoron … 🙂
It’s gotten to the difficult phase now. There’s no escaping it and it doesn’t get better. Even when things get fixed, it’s just a reminder of how different everything is. It’s difficult to accept that things just are not going to be the same again. They’ll be similar but they will never be the same.
I feel so bad for you and everyone inside Christchurch with damage. It’s hard enough being this close.
Even in Rangiora, I still think you have a heap on your plates, especially those like Jonny who are coming in here to work every day. And those who used to work in Christchurch but now don’t have jobs.
In another wrinkle—a friend who works in a construction related industry emailed yesterday that: ” … [it seems that] … pretty much everything inside the cordon (ie the CBD) will need to be cleared with the exception of a few buildings. Very hard to believe but it is so spooky in there with no people or activity.”
That is really hard to get one’s head around … and not great to have to get one’s head around either. We are talking years in any case, even for the most optimistic reconstruction scenario. Then there’s getting one’s heart around it; I suspect that will take the longest time of all.
Sounds like everyone is going to have to adjust to a new “normal” 🙁 After a disaster of this magnitude you can’t go back to the way it use to be, just move on and embrace what is now. I hope having your writing will help keep your spirits up while you adjust and move forward 🙂
Sharon, one of the phrases being thrown about a lot at present is “the new normal”—which has obviously stabilised at a very different level to the old normal! And sometimes , in some places, it’s a weird juxtaposition of the old and new normals which can be quite surreal … (humorous, too, if you look at it with the right tint to your spectacles. 😉 )
You are quite right though, there is no going back, ever, so we do have to look forward and pretty much “keep going.” That is a big reason why I didn’t cancel the Book Month tour last week: obviously it would have really left the Dan Davin folk in the lurch, which would not have been good, but I do think continuing to get the job done, if you possibly can, is really important. And I am definitely enjoying the work on The Gathering of the Lost … but more on that in another post. 🙂