Kaikoura
It's been a long time coming, but Kaikoura deserves a spot on the website, especially given that we were among some of the last people to see it in the state it was. Friday was the Canterbury anniversary and so we had a long weekend, but due to bad weather we decided not to go to Kaikoura. The Sunday, however was a bit clearer, so we took the chance and went for a day trip. We returned in the evening and later that night a very large earthquake hit the South Island.
The earthquake was magnitude 7.8, which is bigger than the Christchurch earthquakes in 2010 and 2011, and hit inland of Kaikoura just 6 hours after we left. We felt the quake in Christchurch. It came in the form of some large slow shaking over about 4 minutes. It was long enough for Alex to start feeling sea sick, and for me to start getting excited. It was surreal to look outside from the second level to see that the building was bending back and forth. There was no damage in Christchurch, but Kaikoura was severely hit. Among other things, the sea bed rose one metre and landslides completely severed State Highway 1 which we had just driven. Here is a photo of the road we took on the news the next day:
The trip
Our day in Christchurch was great and also quite eventful. We spent it on the peninsular, hiking first above on the clifftops and then back down along the the coastline. Down at the coast we got up close to the New Zealand Fur Seals that live there. The path back along the rocks was closed off because of the rising tide, so we climbed our way up a steep hill on our way back. Here are a few photos from the walk.
Far from over, our day got a bit more dramatic on the way back when Alex spotted a couple in trouble down on the rocks. They'd gotten stuck because of the tide and were waving for help. We ended up calling emergency services. Alex stayed to watch the couple and I left for the carpark to escort the incoming police officer. Getting some funny looks on the way back, we got the police officer out to the lookout and the coast guard were called. Our duty was done and we headed back. On the way we spotted the coast guard boat drive past, and knew they were having trouble finding the couple. Back at the carpark, we saw one of the coast guard on the radio to the boat. We approached him (although he didn't know who we were) to let him know where they were, but after politely waiting for him to stop talking on the radio (about how they didn't know where to look) he completely ignored us because he was 'too important' for us peasants. He jumped in his car to start searching in the wrong direction... His loss, but I hope they found the couple safely in the end.