2nd biggest earthquake in NZ history!!

Right, first of all we are both safe. On Wednesday night NZ had their second biggest earthquake ever recorded. 7.8 on the Richter scale!! To put that into perspective, the earthquake that hit China last year and killed over 50,ooo people was only 6.2! Luckily for us our quake hit in the Doubtful Sound in Fjordland, which is the least populated area of NZ. That said, the Doubtful Sound is only about 100km away so we felt the tremor quite a lot.

We were both cuddled up on the sofa when it all started to shake. I thought Kate was jiggling her leg so told her to stop. She thought i was shaking the sofa so told me to stop. She got up and still accused me of shaking the couch. I told her i wasn't moving and that it must be an earthquake. Her face dropped and we both simultaneously said "Shit! What do we do?" We both looked at each other then turned to watch our heater move across the front room floor. Then it all stopped.

It was well weird. Kinda scary too and eerily quiet. I always imagined an earthquake to have rumbling noises. It was also amazing too that there was hardly any damage and no one got hurt. There were a few news reports showing CCTV footage of local supermarkets with all the foods falling off the shelves and tales of land slides. They issued a tsunami warning to Australia too but apparently the biggest wave was only 17cm over the average height. Their have been 12 earthquakes and over 200 after shocks since the big one but i haven't noticed them. I have to admit that being in an earthquake is not something i want to do very often.

I actually spent a whole day on the mountain the other day. We headed up and met up with our friends Laura, JC (Jesus Christ) and Kieran. Kate even kept up with us on a few runs. Well, until we took her down a run called Sarah Sue. It was very narrow and there was a drop off on one side which kept catching her eye. She didn't enjoy it and ended up heading down for a mulled wine. I had a great laugh with the guys and was amazed at how much air Kieran was getting! The guy was flying around off everything. I started to get my confidence up and hit a few big jumps and dropped into some huge bowls. After a while my right foot started aching and i called it a day. When i got home i looked at my sore foot and noticed that i had split the ball of it. Not sure how though. I wonder if i had a small stone in my boot or just split it on a landing. Either way it is flipping sore. I'm gonna rest it for a few days and see how it feels. Hopefully we will get some more snow too as the mountain needs some. It is well covered but is really hard and crusty. Some nice soft snow will certainly give me even more confidence with jumps as well.

Other news is that Kate won a poker tournament the other night. As well as a $50 dollar bar tab she is also entered into a $500 cash game in a few weeks. It means that between me, Kate and our friends Mike and Carlos we have won a tournament in town for the last 4 weeks. I unfortunately missed out on a seat for the cash game as i won a week before the entries started. Mike has 2 entries though so may give it to me which will be cool.

We also had an awesome day yesterday. We went to the Onsen hot tubs over at Arthurs Point. Kate got it for free as she finally used her "frontline staff" letter. People who work in frontline staff get loads of free stuff. They just have to ask for it. So i had to pay but it was well worth it. The hot tubs are in these little private rooms with retractable walls and roof. So we jumped in, retracted the roof and enjoyed the scenery out over the Shotover gorge and the shotover jet boats flying around the river below us. It was so relaxing and certainly helped my aching muscles after all the skiing the day before. We then went to the cinema in the evening and watched The Hangover. It was hilarious. I must admit that it has been the best couple of days i have had since we arrived in NZ.

So next week i drop my hours at work and then start mixing up my shifts with the Remarkables. I met quite a few more people from the Remarks at this weeks jug night so hopefully i won't be too green over there. Jug night was a lot of fun this week. I am so jammy in that i get the day off after. We went out with the admin and custodian departments to a restaurant called Joes Garage. It was a nice place and it helped that Billy knew one of the guys who works there. He also is in negotiation for them to sponsor our works dodgeball team. We are having a big tournament and wanted to be the Average Joes Garage team like the Average Joes Gym team from the film. After Joes Garage we went to Montys which is a bar i detest! Well, usually i do cos it is always super busy. On Thursday nights they have the 'ression session' where beer is only $3. It was cool this time though as there was a big crowd of us. Billy, richard and me then went and crashed the Guest services departments jug night over at Rattlesnake. It felt great to be back at Rattlesnake. The poker tournaments there have stopped but it was great seeing the barmaids again. Especially since they gave me free beer!! By the time i got to meet up with Kate and the gang for poker at Surreal, i was pretty hammered. Oh well, i got a nice lay in the next morning and plenty of time to recover.

So i am still having the best time, I just hope there aren't gonna be anymore earthquakes!

Peace y'all.

D

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