I have to say it's terrible news about the earthquake. The only good news is that nobody has died.

I suppose back in the 1800s they didn't know much about earthquakes and the buildings aren't earthquake proof. I suppose all you can do is retro fit the most important buildings as they have done in the USA.

One of the sky divers was from Farnborough, I will have to ask my sister if she know him. She has not been sky diving for some time. She got her licence at Netheravon.

Doreen, things in Christchurch are bad but don't read too much into media reports, on occasions they are known to bend the truth. Most of the severely damaged buildings are very old and of brick/stone construction, many will have to be demolished. It's difficult for workers at present because the city is still experiencing quite strong aftershocks.

New Zealand is no stranger to earthquakes but they are not usually anywhere near as strong as little little devil. Built into all home insurance policies is an earthquake and war damage levy, this to give very fast help to homes and families in need. To cover damage to home contents there is an immediate payout of $20,000, to cover damage to the house there is a fast payout of $100,000. The insurance company will pay out for extra contents and damage to the property. All people who have insurance on their homes will be well taken care of, whilst those who haven't taken out such a safeguard will be relying on donations from others.

We have very strict building codes and built into a house is a factor that will allow the building to move in a quake, oddly it's rigidity that causes the problems and this in turn means buildings tend fall down.

Within a day the government had given a lot of money toward a relief package, but Kiwis are a very resilient lot, quakes, floods and the occasional 'Lahar' (volcanic mud slide) are taken in their stride. In the district that Michael and I live (Hawke's Bay) in 1931 there was a terrible quake resulting in a large loss of life and towns being virtually demolished. Now when we have a 'shake' old timers will say if you thought that was bad you should have been here in 1931, I think they have claimed bragging rights. Kiwis also have another expression, “She'll be right”, and the odd part being it always does come right given a little time and the usual community spirit.

Post edited 11:12 am – 9th September 10 by Me.

At 4:10 PM we had a brief visit from another shake, this time 5.3 on the Richter scale. I think we must have upset someone, our new china cabinet has had a real workout and is getting a bit of a complex.

Michael, did someone mention rain? We had one heavy shower start at 10:00 AM, it's now 10:00 PM and it hasn't stopped yet.

I'm back! I've been offline with my B/B down. Unfortunately half the 'techies' have gone to Christchurch to help so my timing was really bad! Over 270 aftershocks so far and still counting. Yes, Me, we were having a coffee in McCafe in Hastings when the quake struck our part of the world. It was odd, everybody laughed!

Does anybody still buy newspapers Robin? I certainly don't. I do think it can sometimes be a dilemma for the media as we all want to know what's going on and often for the better reasons. Our New World has a quake relief  Red Cross box at every checkout and they are getting used too.

Still getting aftershocks Annmarie, but they are decreasing in frequency.

Doreen , it looks like the Americans are going to adopt our national anthem. (I only know some of the words! I didn't realise we were so religious!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v…..qwI1VMxJe4

Sorry you were alone yesterday Doreen but we had a day out.

I am glad the aftershocks are slowing down. I watched all the YouTube clips and I think your National anthem is very humbling. And it's very telling of the people of NZ with their pioneering attitude of doers not talkers. What I mean is you're like one big family and you all muck in and help one another. We have lost that here in the UK. Most people don't even know their next door neighbours.

Michael, I think you need to put a 1 in front of your figure, there has been 1400 after shocks recorded so far.