22nd February 2011

28/02/15

Todays lesson Objective: The Christchurch Earthquake

It was recently the 4 year anniversary of the February 2011 earthquake

that hit Canterbury at 12:51pm with a magnitude of 7.1.

184 people died this day because of it.

(Que Erin and her geography brain)

New Zealand lies on 2 plate boundaries, the Pacific plate is subducted 

below the Australian plate in the north and visversa in the south, however

 this specific earthquake was caused by the alpine fault- 

a transform boundary where the plates rub horizontally along each 

other, building up pressure before finally releasing energy in the form of an earthquake. The country is split up over plates hence 

the stunning mountain ranges.

Someone once told us 'everyone will have a story to tell', in the week 

we have spent here, we learnt this couldn't be more true.

 It's hard to describe how much this natural disaster has affected 

both the people and the city, but 4 years on it still pains people

to watch and discuss what happened on the 22nd February 2011.

Once the initial shock wore off the feeling of fear that the people

of Christchurch felt is indescribable, there was no phone signal

or transport due to the bumper to bumper traffic and so

as a result no way of knowing whether family and friends

were safe and alive.

The city was falling apart around them due to the multiple

aftershocks and so your natural reaction would be to flee.

However this was not the case, as a community the public began searching for people who were trapped under the rubble, many were stuck for up to 6 hours.

Without the vital help from builders and construction

workers the number of deaths would have been significantly higher.

It's hard to do justice just how extreme and devastating

the earthquake was but to put it in perspective 4 years on 

many buildings are yet to be rebuilt and some are still waiting

to be knocked down.

It's hard to imagine what this once beautiful city looked like now that

such little is left.

 

The population of New Zealand is just 4% of what it is in Japan yet they have the same land mass, due to this there is a strong community feel
 and although there is a constant reminder everywhere you
look of what happened 4 years ago, the city is trying
 to make the best of what they have.

 The majority of the buildings either collapsed or were red zoned 

(this means they are unsafe to be used) after the earthquake and so

shopping centres, banks, police stations, everything you need in

order to have a city was no longer available.  So, some 

young students came up with the idea of a 're-start mall' which is where

they fill crates with clothes, cafes, banks and so temporarily

they have there own outdoor shopping centre.

 Despite this New Zealand is still one of the most beautiful countries
with plenty to do in Christchurch. We spent a day in naturally heated pools, sweating in 40 degree water and taking in the eggy (sulphur) air which was surprisingly relaxing. Living up to New Zealand's active reputation we visited "Adrenaline Forest"- similar to Go-Ape. Suspended up to 18m in the air, we flew down zip wires, balanced on wires and in Megan's case had to be rescued and abseiled down the tree! Lastly, a trip up Heathcote Valley on the gondolas (cable-cars) offered us a very windy view of Christchurch and the Southern alps.

 lots of love
Megan, Robyn and Erin
xxx

so far..

It's unlikely anyone back home has heard this story

but recently near Byron Bay (an hours drive from us) a shark attack

was reported and the surfer in the accident died.

(We thought we'd start this post on a positive note)

 It's likely you're now wondering why on earth are we are telling you

this, however, it has been a subject much deliberated

over our time here as early morning swims are seen 

as a necessity on the other side of the world and 

can you imagine the fear that struck everytime you ran into that

ocean just wondering if feet away there was a man eating shark ready

for dinner. 

Ok, we're kidding it isn't as bad as that but compared to home

it sounds a lot more dramatic if you add a shark into the equation.

Realistically we just added a unnecessary amount of drama to a 

traditional morning swim.

(which are actually very refreshing)

 So, what have we been doing in Australia so far?

We started our trip doing what any typical tourist would do and

decided to go to the zoo to take photos of the native wildlife.

(from this we learned koalas smell and all kangaroos are wanna-be models)

Australians are known for their outdoor nature and so we decided

it would be fun to try some of their activities,

kayaking and paddle boarding.

(Which was especially amusing because Megan lacks a necessary

quality which you need in paddle boarding, balance) 

 As a child if you didn't watch a programme called loony tunes 

or Scooby Doo or any Warner Brothers cartoon then

you kind of missed out.

(What a throw back and it's not even a Thursday)

The inner child was telling us to go to the movie world theme

park which has rides on all the superheroes as well as the old school

cartoons. However, the rides had nothing on meeting the actual

real life bugs bunny, tweety pie AND scooby doo which

 was probably the highlight of our day, or life.

 

 Finally and probably the most important place we've been this week

is a little shop called Max Brenners. At first thought, this doesn't

sound like anything special, oh how wrong you are.

This is a bar with a soul purpose to spread happiness through

the most amazing chocolate known to human.

They have every hot chocolate you could think of,

(and it's pretty much just melted chocolate in a pot)

every brownie, cookie, brioche, cheesecake, shot, pancake, waffle even

chocolate pizza and damn does it taste good.

So, if you ever get the opportunity to come to Australia you're number one

place on the list of places to go is there.

 We hope everyone is well back home

lots of love

Megan, Robyn and Erin

xx

P.S it's a bit late but happy 15th birthday to Ellie,

we hope you had a lovely day

 

Chiang Mai and the mystery of Ladyboys penis's

So when we first hopped off our plane from paradise 

we weren’t sure what to expect in Chiang Mai. After hours of

walking around the city (not the centre which could easily be confused

with the 'central' plaza as we soon found out when misscomunication

caused the taxi driver to take us in the completely wrong direction)

we soon found out that Thai massages were a popular tradition.

First thought was that a two hour massage would be a relaxing and

enjoyable experience, we couldn’t have been more wrong.

These women were determined to give our bodies a full pounding

(especially Erin, who had an elbow thrusted into her groin repeatedly)

(she's yet to recover from the experience)

After that scarring ordeal, we stumbled across what we thought was god's 

gift, the bakery. Each donut, garlic bread, and pastry were

like little droplets of heaven and I don't think we've ever been

as happy as we were the day we found Yamakazi.

When you think of Thailand the thought of

ladyboys at some point will come to mind.

First thought is that it's just a man dressed as a woman,

(which technically it is) but damn these men look INCREDIBLE,

to the degree that we (actual women) look more manly

than the majority of them. When we made the decision to 

watch the ladyboys in cabaret we weren't quite sure 

what we were signing ourselves up for.

I think we can all agree it was an experience like no other

(after much deliberation the mystery of where they hide the

 penis is yet to be solved...)

 Finally we were lucky enough to feed and play with the most

beautiful baby tigers. We weren’t entirely sure what to expect

from these animals as they are well known

for their ferocity, however, the best way to describe them

is like playful kittens.

(who, similar to most cats like to spend their day asleep)

We've had an amazing time exploring this beautiful country,

3 words to sum up this trip would be:

1.Rice

2.7eleven

3.Temples

Next stop: Australia

lots of love,

Megan, Robyn and Erin

xx