The Day the Ground Moved: A Christchurch Love Story

Valentine’s Day in Christchurch was sunny, which felt like a good omen. Two things happened that day that I still cannot separate in my memory, and one of them was an earthquake.

I had arrived in the city for my first weekend and was staying in New Brighton, a small beachside area outside the centre. With time to fill, I took a book to the seafront, read for a while, grew restless, and did what anyone does when a quiet afternoon stops being restful: went looking for company online.

The plan was modest – chat to a few locals, pick up tips on places worth seeing, perhaps make a friend. One Kiwi stood out. He was funny, helpful, and after a while we arranged to meet for a walk around the city.

The room that would not stay still

Back at the hostel, I was getting ready to make a decent impression when the dorm began to move. It started as a small vibration, the kind you might blame on a heavy lorry outside, and then it grew. The furniture shifted. For a second I genuinely wondered whether a bulldozer had hit the building.

It was an earthquake. I dropped to the floor next to the only other person in the room, mostly to avoid being thrown off my feet, and earned a carpet burn for my trouble – the sum total of my injuries. When the shaking stopped, an alarm sent us outside while staff checked for damage. The bunk beds, I learned, had been fixed to the walls precisely for this.

Outside, the sky was cloudless, birds were singing and a cool breeze was blowing. It was hard to believe anything had happened at all. But it had: a medium-sized quake, my first, with us sitting right at the epicentre. New experiences have a way of feeling unreal while they are happening.

Far from home

Standing in the sunshine, I became very conscious of the distance between Christchurch and everyone I knew. Confusion gave way to panic and then relief in the space of a few minutes, which is a fast lesson in how quickly circumstances can change, and how lucky it was that nothing worse had happened.

Aftershocks continued for the rest of the day and through the following week. Each one left me wondering whether something larger was building underground. It is a humbling feeling, and a reminder that being able to travel and enjoy the world is a privilege rather than a given.

The date that still happened

The hostel was off limits while checks continued, so I walked to a nearby shop for supplies and found it closing early because of the mess. Then my phone buzzed: the Kiwi wanted to know whether I still fancied meeting. Yes, obviously. If anything, the morning had made sitting in a dorm feel like the worse option.

So, after the strangest of delays, I set off for Cathedral Square with butterflies. A few hours earlier I had been herded out of a building by a rumble from the ground; now I was going on a first date.

The sun stayed out, in both senses. We wandered the quirky streets of Christchurch and followed the Avon River, and I was grateful for friendly company after such a disorienting morning. I could not have asked for a better guide to the city’s charms. The date ended, eventually, and we went our separate ways – though not for long.

Two years on

One day can hold more memories than a whole month. The start was shaky in the most literal sense, but it got the relationship off to a good beginning: more than two years later we are still taking quirky, non-quakey dates in each other’s countries. There has not been another shaky encounter since. He had already rocked my world enough.

About the author

Suzy loves to tell a story. She travels part-time around her job as a Social Media Analyst in London, exploring the landscapes and sights of Europe and returning to her favourite country, New Zealand, as often as she can. Philosophy, culture, food and photography all give her something to write about. Read more at Suzy’s blog at Suzy Stories, or follow her on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

Have a personal travel story to share? Write to me at europediaries(at)gmail.com and send in your ideas for our ‘Travellers’ Tales’ series.