Earthquake in Christchurch

Wow, so sad about the earthquake. Of course everyone on the ship is talking about it. We were there just 11 days before it hit. The epicenter was in Lyttleton, where our ship was berthed. We've been watching CNN a lot, seeing all of the destruction and hearing about all the loss of lives.

Just across the small port and a road in Lyttleton was a cliff. It moved further back from the water further away from the port. That's where the small town is. Some of those cliffs fell onto buildings below. Wonder if the ship would have been damaged had we been there that day? The beautiful 105 yr old cathedral where we admired the floral carpet is in ruin. It survived the 7.1 quake last Sept only to be felled by this one. When we were there, a few buildings had fencing around them as a result of the last quake. The penguin shuttle driver pointed out a beautiful old Victorian house which had fallen off it's foundation. But there were no totally collapsed buildings like now.

 

Had we been in port that day, Mel and I would have been at the Antarctic Center, enjoying the sights and penguins. The airport was closed for a bit the day of the earthquake, right across the street from the center. Many roads were cracked and impassible, how would we have returned to the city center? How would any of us gotten back to the ship with the epicenter being right where it was docked? We are so lucky to have seen the beautiful city before the destruction, and that we were not there on that day.

 

The ladies who put on the floral festival were so proud of their beautiful cathedral. I wonder if it'll be rebuilt?  I wonder if any of them lost their lives, as so far the number is up to 75 per CNN. The people there were so friendly and happy. What an awful thing for them. I hope they'll be able to rebuild and not have this happen to them again.

 

The CEO of Holland America Line boarded the ship in Sydney. He did a presentation today along with a question answer session. His first comments were about the earthquake in Christchurch.  HAL has a number of employees who live there. Only 2 were slightly injured in the quake. Their port representative, who was on the pier when we were there, lost his home, but is not injured. It brought the disaster even closer to home, our home away from home, the Amsterdam.