As you may have heard, New Zealand suffered a 7.1 earthquake last Saturday and has been enduring after shocks ever since. During the time of the earthquake, 9 other students and myself were in Christchurch traveling for a first weekend break. After a long and busy day, we went to bed only to be woken we our world forcefully shaking all around us at 4:30 a.m. The girls in my room, including myself, were a bit nervous but to be honest we did not think much of it. In fact, Katie and I got up and tried to go to the bathroom so that we could go to bed. However, on our way to the bathroom, some other girls in our hostel asked us if we had to evacuate. They were only half dressed so Katie and I offered to go find out. When we opened the door of our wing, we saw the occupants of the entire hostel flooding downstairs. We went back onto our wing, informed all the girls to leave, grabbed our shoes and jackets and quickly rushed downstairs. When we go into the lobby, a man told us to get outside and follow evacuation procedure.
Outside, we looked for the rest of our group. When we began to look around, we realized that the streets were flooded with people from all the surrounding buildings. The church bells were ringing, car alarms were screeching, and people were rushing towards the center of Cathedral Square. It was a cold night, but thankfully the rain from earlier had cleared. Some of the members of our group had not grabbed a jacket or shoes, not thinking that we would be outside for the next two and a half hours. As a group, we were not concerned about what we had just faced but we were concerned about the rest of the group (now more like family) traveling and hiking in places far away from us. We prayed for them and talked about what we had just experienced, but very little. Eventually, the staff of our hostel started taking role and then giving directions. They passed out blankets while we waited for our building to be cleared by the fire department.
Eventually, we were allowed back inside. First, they funneled us all into the bar area because that was stated to have been the safest area of the building. There, they passed out water for us along with more blankets. Finally, we were allowed back into our rooms. Hannah, Dan, and Perry’s room got moved because their area of the building seemed to be a bit unstable an it had suffered the most amount of damage. We went back to bed knowing that there was no power, water, and there would be no transportation out of the city for a while. I don’t know how, but we thought nothing of it we just figured we would go to bed and wake up and continue our weekend. I contacted CCSP to ensure them of our safety and I made sure I called my parents as well, but then I went to sleep. We were woken up a few time by some aftershocks (tremors) but they were not nearly as violent as the earthquake was.
At some point, Courtnay contacted me and gave me the game plan for the day so I knew what I was to do. Hannah came into our room and got us and told us we had to get out. We were all really confused at this point but we got up, got out, and met up with the whole group. Together, we all walked to where we would be getting picked up by the wonderful CCSP staff. They were coming to get us because they weren’t sure when we would be able to leave the city. The group was really calm and we were all in such great spirits. We found a place in town to eat by maneuvering around some of the debris and ruble. The city was fascinatingly calm and the day was beautiful. There was not a cloud in the sky and it was a war 60 ish degrees outside. We found a little delish café to eat at; there were few and far between places running.
The owners of the café were just great to us. They treated us really well and got us whatever we wanted to eat. The owner even came over and talked to us about how we were feeling with all that has just happened. He had his head up high and a smile on his face, even though he had woken up to a wrecked house. He told us that most of the stuff in his house was smashed and the two cars he owned had been completely wrecked by the debris. This man, wearing a huge cross around his neck, told me this with a smile on his face and finished by saying “well the insurance will just take care of it”. He and his wife carried on their business, bringing a sense of normalcy to the day, which was really beautiful.
Eventually our CCSP staff picked us up and they embraced us with such love and joy. We drove home, seeing the Alps in the distance the whole way (a really rare sight). The animals were playing in the field and the birds were singing. The sky was a bright blue and everything looked so still and beautiful on the ride back. Once we reached Kaikoura, the ocean was a light greenish blue and its waves were crashing so beautifully. All day all I could think about was how lucky we were. Lucky to be safe, to be together, to be in New Zealand. How lucky it was that the quake happened in a country that could recover. I had “your love is strong” and “your love is amazing” stuck in my head all day. I was focused on getting the group to where we needed to be and keeping people calm but I just kept thinking about God the entire time this happened. In the midst of turmoil, I found tranquility.
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