4.35am

By this time on Sept 4th last year

we had had 25 decent sized earthquakes

from the Greendale Faultline.

At 4.35am I had no idea what hit my house.

I have a terrible memory but this is what I remember.

It was dark.

The noise was huge.

The violence of movement.

My lamp fell on my head

and I remember sitting up with my lamp in my hand

waiting for my bed to stop shuddering.

The house slowed to a tremble after 30 seconds,

I got out of bed

not thinking to check for broken glass or my stuff scattered on the floor,

Went to my bedroom door hoping it would open

(since then I've learned that my bedroom door is a great seismograph)

and stood in the hallway urgently talking* to Mags.

Somehow I had my phone in my hand

and txted Pippapotamus** saying

we had had a freaken huge earthquake but that we were ok

when an aftershock hit.

They say that what we now know of as the 7.1 earthquake was

actually three earthquakes as the faultline gave way creating a five metre movement.

But to most people it felt like a massive long earthquake

followed by a sharp 6.9 aftershock

and that's how it was reported.

During that aftershock I remember clutching onto my door frame.

I am blessed with an old wooden house

with lots of very solid timber and nice wide wooden door frames

but I've only ever once hugged a door frame,

 it was then.

After that Mags came towards for a hug....

I thought...

but no she was checking her china on the table behind me.

There was no power, the world was completely dark and silent

except for the beeping of incoming txts.

Not from Pippapotamous.

No she ignored the first txt and the second I sent after the first aftershock

saying that the earthquakes were continuing and it might not be ok after all.

It wasn't until four hours later when she got to work that a Kiwi workmate

asked her if she had family in Christchurch, knowing she did,

and told her there had been a massive earthquake and it was bad.

That'll learn her for ignoring txts.

(I know you are reading this Pippapotamus!)

What can you do? 

We went back to bed.

It was two hours until dawn

and there wasn't anything you could do until then.

Never even occurred to me to listen to a radio

which would have required going outside to the ute,

never occurred to me that anybody might need help

it just seemed like a really weird event that had randomly happened.

It turned out that less than 100 people went to hospital for quake related injuries

and only one man was extremely injured.

But most importantly I knew dawn was coming

and it would be ok once the sun came up.

 We would get our bearings.

Little did I know that there was so much more to come

and how personal and close the earthquakes would affect us all.

We have had 8521 earthquakes in the year since Sept 4th 2010.

One while I've typing this.

Nope, didnt feel a thing.

I hardly notice them for many reasons

but there are people who feel them all.

So here's what I've learned from the Sept 4th earthquake.

Your experience and response to the earthquake is in direct proportion to those around you.

Parents:  I have friends with kids who are frightened rabbits and those who register the quakes and carry on.

What I have observed is it's the parents who create the response in their kids.

One friend was away for the first time in her kid's life.

In Auckland and stranded, unable to get home.

She was pleased with her pragmatic husband's response to their two wee ones hunger that morning.

They came out to their kitchen pantry across the floor.

He saw about the only thing that hadn't broken or spilled was the lollie jar.

It sat cradled on the top of the mess of vinegar, flour, spices, glass, coffee, golden syrup.

He grabbed it and gave his kids lollies for breakfast

Now they have fond memories of the day they got sweets first thing in the morning.

Now when ever there's a decent earthquake they want candy.

I am thankful that Sept 4th 2010 was sunny, warm spring day,

just like today.

I am thankful nobody died that day***.

I am thankful that we didn't know what was to come.

I am thankful that I have people,

even though it got super crowded that night as friends and strangers came.

I am thankful I had experienced earthquakes before

and that my parents were calm.

I am thankful I experienced something so extreme and surprising

because I learned so much about who I am and how I need to be.

I was surprised at the food shortages, the damage, the stress

and so, so never want quake brain again.

For something that took 30 seconds

it changed everything.

* Talking makes it sound conversational but it was that "Are you alright???"  type thing, a bit disjointed and obvious - cause you say things like "That was an earthquake!", "It was big!".

** I txted Dae and Ali von der Barr too, and Emma... actually quite a few people so my phone was going off beeping away all morning until the cellphone towers were over loaded.

*** There was a considerable spike in heart attacks on the Friday night following of which the majority died.  Earthquake stress was the culprit.

LATER: After feeling like there should be an earthquake there finally was.  Well there were about four smallish ones.  To give you an idea at 4.52am there was a 2.2 which releases about 33kgs of energy.  At 7.41pm this evening we had a 4.4 earthquake which is 53 tonnes of energy.  That one felt like the house was pushed a few metres eastward and then it bounced back.