Damson

Thanks very much for all your comments - I've really enjoyed reading the different perspectives.

Pom_Chch

Hi,

Earthquakes (and other natural disasters) are bloody frightening. Would the quakes stop me from living here? No. Recently I haven't experienced any little shakes or rumbles (touch wood!) I haven't really thought about it lately, probably because I haven't felt anything for a while.

As for speculating which fault is going to blow next - no one really knows for sure. Chch was apparently low risk and then look what happened! We just get on with life really, not much else you can do. I wouldn't want to sit around on edge wondering if a big quake is going to hit, that'll drive a person to distraction. I don't want to come across as blasé about it as there are many people (adults and children) still suffering psychologically from the big quake 5 years ago. As for day to day living I guess life isn't much different, apart from dodging cones and navigating new road closures!

Anyways, good luck with the move. I'm in Chch, any questions fire away...

Damson

Cracking post and a lovely attitude. You sound really balanced about it and definitely not blasé. I'm a bit of a whimp (you've probably guessed by now) and should get myself some more perspective. Cheers for the offer of advice, much appreciated.

Tom H

Earthquakes can be a pain but they're not the thing to worry about. It's the aftermath, in particular, EQC that are the major obstacle to be scared of.

Damson

Aftermath is a really good point. I think most of us who have never experienced one, just focus on staying alive. Must be a nightmare.

Hazelnut

The phrase that frightens me is, 'Soil liquefaction'. Mainly because I spend most of my spare time outside with my horses and the thought of them being swallowed up and suffocating or being crushed underground fills me with similar dread to what I imagine parents feel when picturing their children being crushed by falling buildings.

The attitude I'm working with is that something is going to kill me. Statistically I think that if you live in NZ you stand more chance of dying on the roads or from cancer or heart failure than you do from being killed in an earthquake.

Being in a large earthquake is going to be frightening at quite a primal level, that's your adrenal glands and millions of years of evolution doing their jobs. It's how you deal with it afterwards that, in my opinion, determines whether you can cope with living in an earthquake region or not.

I'm with some others on here and I'm nervous with gales and hurricanes. When we had the famous Mr Fish, "no hurricane happening here" episode I spent the night in the basement of my house, singing blitz songs to my pet budgie (singing keeps you breathing deeply, slowly and steadily and prevents panic, thankfully budgies don't care if you can't hold a note ) while the whole roof and all the windows got torn off and blown out. We lived through it and I laughed about it the next morning and I had a huge bonus of being able to use insurance money to buy a new roof instead of having to pay for the repairs it needed out my own pocket. Did it stop me buying the house of my dreams in one of the windiest areas of my patch of the UK? Nope. It was the house of my dreams, I have made sure I wind proofed as much as I could though.

Damson

Oh gawd, hadn't even thought of liquefaction!! Loved your post and yes, budgies aren't fussy about peoples' singing - mine wasn't anyway. But then they do spend their days looking in mirrors at their "friend", so we probably should take their opinion with a pinch of salt. Cheers

Justcol

I don't get what all the fuss about
My wife says she regularly feels the earth move in our place, and she never complains.





Sorry I couldn't resist !!

Charismatic

I know right! Obviously keeping a weeks supply of wine in your emergency kit is going to be very impractical so it's going to be spirits but then which do you choose, you can narrow it down to Gin or Vodka I think based on flexibility in simple cocktails. Similarly foods, you need something long lasting and easy to prepare but if you are forced to live on baked beans and tinned spaghetti for a week or two you'll wish you'd taken the quick way out. What we need is Sunday lunch with trimmings as a sort of military style MRE.

BEVS

I knew a Swiss family whose nuclear bunker was filled with booze. They owned a building with four apartments and lived in the top one, of course.

The agreement was. One for booze. One for food. One for sleep camp beds and one for who cares they would all be sh!ters anyway.

It was compulsory that the bunkers be built into the building so a very suitable cellar.

They also had machine guns because of the National Service.

Kotare

Just come back from 6 years in Europe, mainly France and Belgium which are now the epicentre of IS terrorism. Police toting automatic weapons in the streets, searched everytime you went in a public building or a sports event and so forth.

Guess where I would rather be.

BEVS

Norfolk Broads on a barge?

moving2NZ2013

Been here 15months. Never felt a quake.

LauraNotts

Touch wood! Touch it at once!!

moving2NZ2013

Lol I did