September 4th to early February 2011 (part 2)

Some more on the aftermath of the September 4th 7.1 Canterbury earthquake.

I resumed work at Manning Signs on Tuesday, just three days after the initial quake and my five minute drive to work changed to something like 20-25 minutes owing to the fact that Dyers Road over the "Bromley Lakes" (sewerage oxidation ponds) was closed for pipe replacement and road repairs (the road had many longitudinal cracks when we drove over on the Saturday morning before it was closed). This road is part of the Christchurch Ring Road, so is vital for effecient traffic movement from southeast of city to the north. With the South New Brighton bridge out (both approaches had dropped about 150mm) a lot more traffic was going over the New Brighton and Pages Road was bumper to bumper for most of the day. The trip home was even worse and I ended up driving from work towards the city (away from home) so I could get onto Buckleys Road/Pages Road at Eastgate and avoid the Maces/Cuthberts/Breezes Road route that was now the de facto Ring Road.

On Sunday 5th September I was supposed to go to Kaiapoi to be one of the judges for the Photographic Society of NZ Southern Regional Salon (for the Southern Regional Convention that New Brighton Photographic Club was scheduled to host in early October). Unfortunately the venue in Kaiapoi was severely damaged and the judging day was postponed till the following week, at a new venue.

Meanwhile the New Brighton Photographic Club continued on as per normal as though the earthquake had not occurred, and hosted the regional convention at the New Brighton Working Men's Club, but attendance was down about 25% on recent regionals, mostly being Christchurch photographers who did not attend due to the earthquake. Local Labour MP Lianne Dalziel (and newest member of New Brighton Photographic Club - she joined just the week before) was the opening night guest speaker, and I was asked to show her around the print exhibition. She actually lives just 300 metres from me in Bexley, and as luck would have it is a fellow Canon shooter!

We still had aftershocks, sometimes several a day, sometimes feeling just a couple in a week and life returned to some sort of normality.

At the New Brighton Photographic Club's final night (early December) I knew that one member (Alan Crisp) was being awarded Life Membership (I did the certificate), but my fellow and very devious committee members had arranged to grant me Life Membership as well, and it was an emotional moment for me, but something I will treasure.

My sister and family came down for Christmas and she wanted to feel a quake, but missed the first two on Boxing Day (one while she was asleep and one when she was in the shower), but she did feel the quake that is now known as "the Boxing Day quake". This was close to the city and caused a lot of building damage. Two of my workmates had just finished installing some new advertising signage in Ballantynes and had moved off in their van about 50metres down Cashel Mall when the quake struck and parts of building facades collapsed. The main Whitcoulls store in central Christchurch never re-opened after this quake. Many stores were packed with people out for the "Boxing Day Sales".