Christchurch Earthquake "Fiona – our quake refugee"

Many people have opened their homes to people who have suffered in the quake – it’s the Kiwi way!  This is our story.

On the evening of 24 Jan, just 2 days after the quake, Fiona (not her real name, but one that Jeff kept mistakenly calling her!) appeared in the motel reception.  She wanted to know if we had any rooms, which we didn’t, being full.  She volunteered, in average English, that she had no passport and no money - it was all just a little bit confusing.  Jeff decided to check out the story a bit more because something was just not right.  We soon learnt that Fiona was from Germany and was staying nearby but it was quake damaged and had no power.  We also learnt that she had not really had much to eat since the quake.  We invited her in for a bit of dinner which I think was Spagetti on toast – it was only day 2 after all!

We found out a little more and advised her to go to Hagley Park and register with the Red Cross, especially since she had nothing with her.  And we told her to come back and see us after that.  We needed a bit of time to think and after giving her some food for breakfast and a torch, we reluctantly sent her on her way.

Fiona helps us celebrate "redandblackday"

Fiona returned early afternoon on 25 Feb. after registering with the Red Cross.  She was more cheerful and said she had met someone who had offered her a place to stay.  But it just sounded just a little bit dodgy and so we offered her the option of coming to stay with us.  Fiona stayed with us for just over a week and in that time she…found her passport, got a new phone, opened a bank account, got some money from home and got her life back on track. 

 

Fiona is here studying English and was in an inner city building when the quake struck, they ran out of the building leaving everything behind.  Having no family for support she was obviously in a frozen state for the first 2 days, not knowing what to do.  It was then that she walked into our office.

Awww.... shucks.... we got a real nice thank you card!

Fiona left us 2 days ago heading South to see the country and is going to visit my sis for a farm stay in Western Southland.  She may well be back in Christchurch before heading off home and we will welcome her back as a part of our family again.  Cos that’s what us Kiwis do!

Social Media at CentrePntMotel

We’ve been in here at CentrePoint on Colombo Motel for 3 years, 1 month and 6 days and considering the events of recent days we may well be here for quite a while longer. Anyone want a motel? #justjoking

When we took over this place, the office computer was not even connected to the internet and online bookings were a “We’ll get back to within 24 hrs.” Mmmmm….gotta do something here! Is what we thought!

Just to put the record straight, Naomi is the tech in the family and started blogging a couple of years before we left Japan in anticipation of the future, making this about our 5^th year of Social Media mucking in.  Jeff adds his sometimes unique view on life.

Front office social media HQ

Back office social media HQ

So what do we do? We blog in Japanese and English, we have 3 Facebook accounts, we’re on Twitter, we actively participate in Trip Advisor and have a great cms system that lets us tweak our website when we feel the urge! Woot!

Why do we do it….to sell rooms of course!  C’mon, this is a capitalistic endeavour!  Have we sold any? You may ask. Yuss! We can answer, we have, ask the next Bandicoot you meet about it!

But we also do it cos it’s a lot of fun and a good learning curve that is ever evolving.  As the saying goes…it’s fun to live on the edge!

Our exploits on social media do lead to connections on social media but also other media as well.  Recently Jeff has been interviewed on @NewstalkZB by @susimaclean about social media’s roll in the 4 Sep. quake and next was an article in the Christchurch Press about Jeff’s morning pic tweets of the Cathedral, before and after 222.

But it also leads to a bit of stress, some obviously don’t approve of some of the things we do and some obviously don’t approve of the way we say things and this makes us feel like the nail that sticks out a bit sometimes.   But we cope with it, we cope with it.

And today we got the Crem de la creme…..Motella wrote a blog about us….Awwww shucks……nice warm fuzzy feeling! Thanks Stu!

Social meets Print media - the Daily Pic gets on page 3!

In this funny thing we call life, we get recognised for different things in different ways.  Those that do well get a Gong, those that do evil get a sentence…..and those that Tweet pics of the Cathedral every morning at 7am get……an article on page 3 of the Press!

Jeff got interviewed 3 or so days ago at the cordon about life in the cordon.  To be honest, it aint much of a story compared with all the horror out there and so I was wondering when, or even if it would appear.

But there it was on page 3 of today’s The Press Newspaper (5 Mar. 11).  For those outside Chch, this is the daily paper that I use in my morning pic tweets.

The slant of the story was a little different – concentrating on the photo rather than life in the cordon but I’m cool with that.  Many thanks to Victoria from The Press Newsroom.

So, why do I do this? Read my blog about how and why I started taking a daily photo and tweeting it.  And you can see the series of photos here on facebook. On the morning of 22 Feb. it was raining and so I just dashed out, took 2 quick shots and dashed back in again, not knowing it would be the last time for a long time before the Cathedral Spire would return to bring joy to my morning.

22. feb pic

23 feb pic

The pic I took and tweeted at 7am on 23 Feb reveals a totally different Christchurch.  For the first time, the BNZ building can be seen in the picture.  I’ve taken lots of pics since the quake but today I had a newspaper and took a shot as usual, just a few hours later than usual!    I look forward to recording the changing face from my gate at 859 Colombo St. as we put our wonderful city back together!  Especially looking forward to seeing the Cathedral Spire slowly block out the view of the BNZ building little by little!

Todays pic

Christchurch Earthquake Day 9

What is happening to your booking?

So, just what are we doing? Some of our guests with bookings may just be asking that.

Yes, we have been asking people to limit their visits to Christchurch to the bare minimum, and we have been basing this on what we have seen in the inner city and an announcement how Tim Hunter from Christchurch and Canterbury Tourism feels about the situation.

http://www.dotwnews.com/news/Christchurchanogoarea.aspx

Christchurch just is not the place to be at the moment, we need time to tidy up the mountains of rubble, time to plan and time to rebuild.  Especialy the tidy up stage will be intense.  It is estimated that 60% of the buildings in the CBD will have to be demolished and the funny thing is that while the majority are older buildings, there are a number newer structures that will not survive.  Wer need time to tidy all this up and get the city back together.

It is for these reasons that we are asking guests to keep out of Christchurch as much as possible.    

 While Christchurch is seriously damaged, the airport is open and the beautiful South Island is waiting for visitors to visit!  The best way to support Christchurch is by visiting the South Island.

Visitors should drive straight out of Christchurch after arriving to towns such as Akaroa, Hanmer, Methven, Ashburton, Rangiora etc. at the start of their holiday. 

When leaving, plan your last nights stay in the same towns so you can easily drive to the airport.

On a lighter note, today was Redandblack day and people all over the world wore Red and Black to show solidarity with Canterbury.  Jeff also took a photo on Colombo St. in the morning which was broadcast on TV1 as a part of their coverage of the day!

We also got into the excitement in the middle of the street, avoiding the few cars there were and after a few pics on Colombo St. we were ready to promote the dayto anyone inside the cordon by adding a dash of red to the motel sign! 

The great news to finish off the day was that the Crusaders won!

On a positive note, it was annouonced on the news tonite that the cordons are to be relaxed from Sunday – Great!!  But they could not say how they are to be relaxed.  We are hoping that we will be “out” of the cordon by Sunday evening.

Freedom! Freedom!!  We have been living and operting the motel behind the cordon and we give many thanks to all those who have helpde us in out endeavors.  We hope that tomorrow will bring better news.

Christchurch Earthquake Day 8

Wow! Have to say sorry to everyone!  Did not get to blog yesterday. Decide to have an early night so headed off to bed at 12 for a good nights sleep…NOT! Bloody aftershocks….8 during the night! I think I woke up for 5 of them….but in aggregate 7 hours sleep…the most since 22 Feb.

It’s been a full on 2 days with the motel being pretty much full, and lots of cancellations and booking enquiries.  The reality has become clear and there is far fewer accommodation options available in Christchurch post quake and we are adjusting to this.

But back to the disaster.

Life inside the cordon continues in its restricted way.  Life outside the cordon would definitely be easier!  I was able to walk up to Peterborough St to get a few pics.  Glad I did because it is not so easy to walk up there without being stopped by the police now.  Looking at what has been done, the destruction of a special part of Christchurch is almost complete.

Tuesday was 1 week since our lives irreversibly changed.  My god what a week, I don’t think I can remember a week with more in it!  We stood on Colombo St. to remember those who were no longer with us, we stood to think of the disaster that was visited on us….we stood.  From where we stood we could see the Cathedral Spire Stump, from where we stood it was only about 400 metres to the PGC building where so many had perished.  We stood in silence for 2 minutes but the tradesman across the road did not have his radio on and was noisy for the first minute!

Afterwards Naomi and I hugged each other and cried for everyone and everything.  One of our friends who we went to rugby games at AMI with was in the CTV building and no doubt there will be more people we know.  We also cried for what was not anymore.  We will go on and maybe it will be better but still we cried for what was not anymore.  We cried together and that was important.

And then we moved on, knowing that while we had paused, we will still have reason to pause again in the future. There are so many people and so much to remember!

This day, in the morning, we were visited by the USAR team.  They never visited us after the September 4 quake and so when a uniformed person with a sledgehammer turned up in the office saying *we are clearing the place,* we were of course surprised.  It took a few seconds to realise what was happening, at first we thought we were being evacuated for some reason! 

This was a part of the door to door central city search to confirm no-one was left anywhere.  They sprayed the driveway to show we had been checked!  And asked me quite a few questions!

In the afternoon we had some good earthquake entertainment with a bloody big digger racing up Salisbury St! 

Wednesday was also the day of the wind which stirred up the dust making a mask a necessity.  It got everywhere and was horrible. Thursday was just soo much better!!

This day I was also interviewed by The Press on life inside the cordon, went shopping for new microwaves and watched as the plans for the clean up continued!

More tomorrow…..

Living inside the cordon

The Cordon with Kiwi & Singapore Army personal, a road closed sign and a few cones.

The area inside the 4 avenues is cordoned off and the barriers are manned by Police and Army personal, including our gracious friends from Australia and Singapore!

Living life on the edge, if I go over this line without ID, I can't get back!

The only way to get in is by having proof of residence and it is very strict.  With personal being continually rotated, we find ourselves showing our ID most trips through the cordon.  It can get stressful because while there are rules they are open to interpretation.  The other day I was told that if I took my car outside the cordon, I would have to leave it outside and walk back in, but the next day I was allowed out and in with the car.  There was also an interesting episode when some guests were told their access may be limited and we had to work hard to get their access guaranteed.  I am not complaining, I know its tough and this hasn’t exactly happened before and there’s a lot of stress.  This is just the reality of life behind the barrier.  On the plus side, it’s real quiet!  We do however, have to abide by the curfew rules which are 6pm to 6am and while I take pics from the gate at night if there is work going on at the Cathedral etc. I don’t go any further.  It’s very eerily quiet inside the cordon at night.

Inside the cordon there is another......cordon.

Today, a busy day dealing with multiple cancellations and bookings, time got the better of me and I mistakenly headed off down to Peterborough St. arounf 6.40pm……here’s what happened as I related it on Twitter.

So close but yet so far, so beautiful but so ruined

Busy busy day.....no time to go out.....so have just been out in the cordon......#eqnz

Work continues on the FB building - taken from inside the cordon

But Fark! I got stopped by three Boyz in Blue! They ask *what do you do?* I look at watch and think....oh shit....curfew....#eqnz

So I very clearly explained who I was and what I was doing........#pleasedontarrestme #eqnz

They ask who the other person was and I said it was my son......#eqnz

They said...*it's curfew time you know*...so I put on my surprised expression, looked at my watch and said.....Oh! shit its this time! #eqnz

They let me go ..... and I cycled home ...... #nottakentojail #eqnz

Today's lesson - don't go biking in cordoned area after curfew time without a cycle helmut on! End of report from inside the cordon #eqnz

Was gonna ask for a pic with the iphone but the steely stare and cold voices told me *No! not a good idea!* #eqnz

Oh! When they asked me what I was doing I said *just getting some #eqnz pics for Twitter & Facebook* #GoSocialMedia

If I was arrested, judge would ask *what WERE you doing?* & I would say *Promoting the reconstruction thru social media, your honour* #eqnz

Lots of noise inside the cordon tonite from down past Peterborough St. 

Only the new light will tell.

As a footnote, lucky it wasn’t the policeman (use nice word) that I had a discussion with at the cordon yesterday….of I may well have ended up in jail!!  And that is outside the cordon!

Christchurch Earthquake Day6

Its been another interesting day, the day before we meet the 1 week anniversary since the ground shook.  We will take time to hold hands together and think of those who ended their time with us a week ago.

We started the day in fog but it soon cleared to show activity at the Colombo Peterborough St. intersection and the Australian Police Officer said the block may be cleared today.  It was not to be as it turned out.  The whole block looks really munted, and we hope that a few of the buildings are able to stay with us.

A rubbish truck drove up the street today.  They have a really distinctive whirr and everyone immediately know what it was.  The driver said they’d take anything so we and the neighbours all wheeled out as many full bins as we could.  We even refilled and dumped again! Great to see the council is getting things done and not sticking to rules too much.  Good on them!

The news is slowly coming out about which buildings we will be loosing from the CBD and the surprising thing is that some of the most modern buildings are also on the list.  It appears that the liquefaction do not discriminate and likes new buildings as much as old!

Today we have been talking by email with a few of our guests about room availability.  We have been asking people to not stay with us because we are behind the cordon, there is nothing to do here, we are concentrating on the rescue process, and we figured that most people should be able to arrive and drive straight out of Christchurch.  Similarly, we assumed that people would be able to drive directly to the airport instead of staying in Christchurch when leaving the South Island.  But today we had the case of a guest who would be joining and leaving a tour in Christchurch who needed 1 night at both the start and end of the tour.  We realise that cancelling at this stage would be difficult in some cases and so will be reviewing our requests inline with this. More info tomorrow.

As we close in on 1 week, I have taken particular notice of the 2 cars parked outside the motel that have not moved for 6 days.  One of these cars has a learner tag, probably indicating a young driver.  We hope the only reason they are here is because they can't get thru the cordon to pick them up.