So yeah, I'm near Christchurch NZ. I'm sure some of you already know because it is apparently international news.

But yeah, a 7.1 earthquake struck at 4:30 AM. Lots of buildings down in the city and roads are destroyed and shifted. Both fresh water and sewerage pipes are damaged. Phone survived the whole thing, though power was out most of the day. My town also took a lot of damage, paticulary from liquifaction.

Scariest pineappleing thing in my life. My golden retrievers woke me up a bit before it and wouldn't settle (I had both of them on my bed last night as it was a cold night). Then one of them jumped off my bed and made my room shake. Except the shaking didn't stop. It kept going and going and going getting worse and worse and worse. Continued for about 2 minutes, and wow was I screaming. My bedroom is not actually in the house but instead a small shed thing near the house. About a minute a later I saw light outside and I was thinking "Oh pineapple the house is on fire". But it was my mother with a flashlight... we ended up going to a neighbours place and then we went for a walk with a flashlight. The liquefaction was insane. Some paths and things had just sunk under the ground and there was lots of mud and massive cracks (some quite deep) in the roads. Some places were flooding from broken water pipes and there some badly damaged buildings. Seeing that in my own town... it's really quite unbelivable. You see it on tv a lot, but with your very own eyes? Its quite different. All the street lights were gone and there was some other people walking and driving along the streets.

It was a bit amusing when a lady in a car asked us if we were ok and then says "GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE BECAUSE THERE IS A TSUNAMI COMING". Me and my sister have taken a university geology course where we learnt the basics of this stuff (And I must say the knowledge came in handy today even though I hated the course) and instantly questioned this woman. My mother was worried but luckily we saw a news reporter guy who stopped to chat to us and confirmed that there probably wouldn't be a tsunami. He also explained that even if there was, it wouldn't really be serious.

When the sun came up, I saw the remains of the historic swing bridge just near my home.
http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g237/___heidi___/SwingBridgeRemains.jpg

And there was this shop that had been here for like... 100 years. Owned by a family. Really special. It got damaged, and they got a bulldozer in to rip the remains down. It is basically part of what makes this town what it is. A significant land mark. Really sad =(

But yeah, that's my town, a little bit north of christchurch.

And the city itself...
http://tvnz.co.nz/national-news/state-emergency-declared-airport-reopens-3759948/photos
That's crazy... It's like... "This is christchurch, the city I've been near pretty much all my life..." Yesterday things were normal. Today they are very different. And they will be for awhile yet. Looking at the videos and photos... but yeah, the city is currently in lock down for the night and anybody found wandering around will be arrested. And the fact that next time I do go to the city it will look very different, and it will never be the same.

I was supposed to be going back to university in 2 days. It is now closed (And nobody is allowed to go on site without permission) until 13th September. So yeah, spring break has been extended by a week. I'm not even allowed to go back to my apartment before then.

My mother's house is unsafe due to an unstable chimney. So we're all in my bedroom. Internet and power came back surprisingly quickly (Around 11 hours after quake) and I decided to try set up router in a place that we'd get a good signal (It's normally real bad out here) and that worked surprisingly well so now everybody is in here with a laptop lying on matresses. Nothing like laptops with internet for entertainment. >_>
I still might get evacuated though as there is sewage flooding in places around the town, the sewage system in general is down, and there are broken water pipes (And of course the water mixing @_@). And if this chimney gets seen...

Who else here has been in a big earthquake? This is my first time, and I really hope it's my last! It was soooo scary. And it's going to be a long week stuck in this small room with my family. Not sure how much I'll be here in the next few days. I guess it depends on if there are anymore serious earthquakes or if I get evacuated or if the internet and power stay. One of my aunts in a town about 2 hours away has said we can stay with her and bring all our animals if we need to. Despite a lot of freaking out, me and my family are ok. Nobody is injured. My black cats are terrified but we're being careful not to feed them too much as hungry cats don't run away ;P