Christchurch Earthquake 07.

Thursday 9^th. There is good news and there is bad news. The good news is that the water supply has been declared safe so we do not have to drink gin instead, or boil water for brushing our teeth. The bad news is that the State of Emergency has been extended to next Wednesday. This problem is obviously not going to go away any time soon.

Ruth remained at her telephone, which was running hot all day, with barely a respite. I went out once to go to the movies. Or so I thought. I should explain.

My friend Hans Petrovic rang to see if I wanted to go to see the new movie ‘Centurion’, which was to open at the Rialto today. Hans is a movie critic, and does reviews on Plains FM. He has a variety of contacts, one doing comedies, another doing musicals and so forth, whom he interviews on Radio every week, which programme is aired every Wednesday [and is available on podcast for those who might be interested]. I do Historical, Science Fiction, Fantasy,  and Weird Stuff, so ‘Centurion’, which is about a Roman Officer lost in northern Britannia during the Brigantian rebellion of the early second century AD fell squarely within my purview. We agreed to go to the 1330 screening.

Hans arrived at about 1315 [‘Take your time. No hurry’]. I suggested that we go down Kilmore and Durham Streets, as there was some sort of blockage on Moorhouse Avenue, but Hans wanted to go that way to get access to some car parking that he knew. Sure enough, we ran into trouble as soon as we turned from Barbadoes Street into Moorhouse Avenue where traffic was backed up into Ferry Road and thoroughly snarled up. The old Christchurch Railway Station had been declared unsafe, as I had said – there are some quite serious cracks in the great tower, I understand – and all but one of the five western-bound lanes had been blocked off. Hans, as usual, was in the wrong lane, so we had some trouble getting around the corner. He was impatient to get to the theatre on time, so he decided to take a short cut behind the Railway Station – which was blocked.

We ended up going around and around the mulberry bush for a while, up Madras Street, through Southwark Street, into Manchester Street and back to Moorhouse. All along the way there were signs of devastation, walls toppled, roofs collapsed, poles and posts at rakish angles, but all the bad stuff seemed to have been at least fenced off and, apart from the tangle in Moorhouse avenue, road traffic was moving steadily if slowly. We reached the parking area in behind Harvey Norman only to find a man with a safety helmet behind the ticket desk of the Rialto. The cinema was closed until further notice. It had been open on Tuesday evening, apparently, but the heavy aftershocks of Wednesday morning had pulled something loose and it was no longer safe. So much for ‘Centurion’.

We made our way slowly back to the Cottage via Madras Street and Salisbury Street. High Street and Tuam Street were still fenced off and the roadblocks manned by soldiers. A huge container truck was planting what appeared to be empty containers end to end along Madras Street between High and Cashel Streets, creating some sort of barricade but against what I could not see. The Blues Bar may well be a write off, as well as the lovely little old Nurse Maude building, which would be very sad. It is [was?] a real little gem. Cashel Street and Hereford Streets were still cordoned off, with rubble in the streets and giant road cranes working in the near distance, and I saw minor damage to St. John’s Church and to Charley Brown’s Backpackers, as well as other buildings around Latimer Square, but nothing too serious.

The situation is dire, beyond any doubt, but from the very cursory glimpse that I had it would seem that things are being brought under control quickly and efficiently. There is even talk of lifting the cordons in the inner City by 0500 on Friday. We shall see.

To be continued: