It has been interesting to see how the Christchurch earthquake has been reported both locally and internationally.

With other major events taking place across the globe the international media has not been short of things to report...no slow days.....

Within 24 hours the situation in Christchurch had been moved off the front pages by the problems developing across a number of Muslim states, most notably Libya.

Within 3 days there was little, if any coverage at all of the aftermath of the quake.

Locally the picture is very different with NZ TV and Radio putting out almost 24 hour coverage providing details not only on the overall situation but also delving into the minutia and exposing peoples grief.....a story with legs.......

If you get behind the bald facts, 150+ people dead, 200+ unaccounted for, 100’s seriosuly injured, 6.4 on the Ricter scale, etc, etc,  then the reality is that Christchurch has suffered very major damage from which it will take many years to recover. Many of the cities central district buildings are badly damaged and will need to be torn down, including iconic buildings like the central cathedral. A week after the quake 50% of the city is without power and clean fresh water, the facilities are all badly damaged, sewage systems, power, telephone systems, fresh water, roads and rail lines. 1,000’s of people have left the city for other towns and cities, holiday homes, rented campervans, etc. The less fortunate have remained to begin the task of rebuilding their lives. 100’s of homes will need to be demolished and 1,000’s will neeed major structural repairs.

NZ has an earthquake fund that will be used to help plus offshore insurance that will go someway towards meeting the estimated $8 billion in costs, but the real costs will take yeasr to calculate not least the damage to Christchurch’s reputation as a tourist destination.

All of this will be done in the knowledge that Christchurch sits on a major fault line that was undiscovered prior to last Septembers quake, and another major quake could hit at any time.

This is not a unique situation, SanFrancisco sits on a similar fault line, Terje and I spoke with residents of villages that had returned to their burnt out homes after a recent volcanic eruption had spewed lava down its slopes and many of the Pacific Islands Trish and I sailed to last year frequently experience devastating cyclones and even Tsunamis.

Humans are a hardy bunch when they have to be and Kiwis are as tough as they come.

Once they have buried their dead, torn down the damaged buildings, they will begin the rebuilding process and get on with their lives.