Hi there
Wow, we just had a truly Kiwi Bay of Plenty experience this week. Try getting jolted awake at 02h40 from a deep sleep with your bed all ashaking and the sound of rocks rumbling under you. Well I tell you in 2 seconds flat I went from horizontal to vertical, ready to run. I guess the little rumble only lasted a few seconds and just gave us a bit of gentle shake. But it was enough to get us out of bed. And 10 minutes later, a second shake, rattle and roll chased us out of the house.
So after a while out of bed, and after checking out on Geonet that we had just experienced 4.3 and 3.2 earthquakes, we thought it safe to go back to bed. On no, not to be! After trying to get back to sleep, we heard the ominous rumble and were out of bed by the time the shaking started. Quake No. 3 was 4.0 and by now our nerves were shot! That was it, we couldn't go back to sleep . By now, we were really feeling a bit panicky because we must have had about 7 shakes and shudders by the time the clock hit 6.30 am. Nothing fell around the house and the house just creaked and groaned a little, but it was still a little scary.
There were still more little quakes during the morning, nothing bigger than 3.7. But you still worry about these little quakes being the fore shocks to a bigger, more vicious one. This is exactly what happened in 1987 when a 6.7 earthquake caused quite a lot of damage (but with no deaths). I thought perhaps that we being a little paranoid as SAffers, we are not used to earthquakes, but you should have seen the bunch of zombies in my office that day. We all looked bleary eyed, drinking copious amounts of coffee to keep awake, trying to keep our concentration going.
Well guys, that was quite an experience for us. When we were preparing to move to NZ we were well aware that NZ has earthquakes and active volcanoes and we knew that when we settled here in the Bay of Plenty area, that earthquakes can happen here. During the whole of last year, I did not feel one single earthquake and to suddenly have a whole swarm of little quakes thrown at you, that was a bit unnerving. Apparently, we had 25 quakes in total, with 8 shakes of 3.0 and over in a space of about 10 hours.
Last night all was quiet, so we had a good night's sleep without anything further. Just before lunch today, Mother Earth still must have been a bit angry, as she stomped her foot just enough to let us know she still is not happy. So we will see what happens tonight. All is quiet at the moment.
So quys, just be prepared. You can land up in an area where earthquakes do happen. There are plenty of places that experience the quakes. Of course, Auckland and other areas don't seem to have them, but your jobs might bring to a place where they do happen. So I thought to share our experience with you all.
Still, I quess we'll get used to them. And I'd rather get stressed out by this than some horrific act of crime.
