Shake, Rattle and Roll

A quick post just to say we are fine. Christchurch was hit with a 7.1 earthquake about 4:30 this morning. It was surreal. The air rumbled and the house shook for what felt like a good two minutes or so. We huddled all together in one of the bedrooms and kept one another calm. Reuben just wanted us to turn off the lights, stop making so much noise and let him go back to bed. We have only a few broken dishes and a lot of dust, but no major damage. In the city proper, about 8 miles away there is quite a bit more damage which I am sure you can see on the web. I'll post more later when I collect my thoughts. All I can say, in my naive way, I was sure the whole time we would be fine. It felt a little like a Disney ride: very realistic, but you know the engineers behind it made sure everyone would be safe in the end.