Earthquake Update

This afternoon I headed up the Rapaki Track for the first time in nearly a year. It's a popular track with mountain bikers, joggers and walkers. However after the February 22nd quake (2011) it was closed for many months due to rockfall hazard. On December 23rd, at midday, the announcement was made that it had reopened. And then two hours later, there was another quake, and one an hour after that, so it was again closed.

It seems that all the issues have been resolved, although there is still this sign at the start of the track. Many other tracks are still officially closed. For instance, the valley track in the gully below, where my favourite grumpy faced rock resides (at least, I hope it still resides there and wasn't a casualty of the earthquakes), and where a lone piper used to be heard practising from time to time.

On the Summit Road at the top of the track, there is a substantial road barrier - not one, but four rows of orange poles, then some heavy concrete barriers and a locked gate with a very official looking sign:

You can't quite read the small print in the photo, but it warns of a penalty of a very heavy fine or up to three months imprisonment, under the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Act (some section or other), for ignoring the "No Entry" warning.

I used a lot of zoom to take this photograph:

This is on the other side of the Summit Road from the top of the track, it is the end of the cliff which used to be a popular rock climbing area. I very much doubt that it will be considered safe enough for rock climbing for a long time.

In other news, a link to my daughter's post on the process of her earthquake-related house repairs - now nearly completed. And as for ours - well, today we had an assessor sent by our insurance company. Seven months ago, the EQC (government natural disaster insurance organisation) assessed the house. And they have now decided that it is over the cap - (see explanation below) - so they passed the claim over to our insurance company. How this took seven months to decide I can't quite fathom. I guess it just sat in a pile of 100,000 or so other claims for that time, not being looked at. Today's assessor agreed that the damage was well over the EQC $100,000 cap - though he also told me that the house had "stood up pretty well". In other words, along with the chimney that fell down, the front of the house that needs to be jacked up, and a few doors that don't open or shut properly, there are enough cracks in ceilings, wall linings and exterior cladding to add up to a considerable sum to fix - but structurally, the house is not in any danger of falling down - unlike some.

For those overseas readers who are unfamiliar with the New Zealand earthquake insurance system - after the big 1931 Napier earthquake, the government set up the Earthquake Insurance Commission, which was supposed to cover damage to private houses (not businesses) from natural disasters. It is funded by a levy on all insurance policies. But the annual levy, and the limit on cover, were last reviewed in, I think, 1989, so have rather failed to keep pace with inflation. This means that EQC will cover damage up to $100,000 (plus GST - a type of sales tax) which in 1989 was the full cost of the average house. So, for the Christchurch earthquake, the system that is running is this:
Damage under $10,000 is paid out in cash and you organise your own repairs.
For damage between $10,000 to $100,000, Fletchers, a big construction company, have been appointed to oversee the repair process. This is to avoid having lots of "cowboy" contractors and price hikes due to the overwhelming demand for tradespeople. Fletchers then appoint subcontractors to do the repairs (the process my daughter has just been through).
And the third level - if it is above that, the $100,000 is paid either to your bank, if you have a mortgage, or to the homeowner, and the insurance company takes over from there.

I'm not too disturbed that we are over the limit, I had long suspected as much and wondered why no one had said so before. In fact, I think in some ways it will be easier to have only the insurance company to deal with, and not the rest of the bureaucracy. As to when anything will happen, along with most of the rest of the population of Christchurch, I have no idea. No doubt some time before I die, if that's not unexpectedly soon!

Tuesday Poem: The Bird, by Victor Hugo

Be like the bird, who
Pausing in his flight
On limb too slight
Feels it give way beneath him
Yet sings
Knowing he has wings.

- Victor Hugo
(translator unknown)

I walk to and from work most days, if I can get up early enough (it takes about half an hour each way). On my walks, I often find myself not noticing my surroundings, as my mind goes its own way. So I try to counteract this tendency and deliberately notice what is around me, jotting down half a dozen small observations per day.

Last week I noticed a sparrow land on a dandelion stalk, which promptly bent itself horizontal under the bird's weight. The sparrow ended up perched over the gutter like a tightrope walker, before it flew off. I thought there might be poem material there somewhere - then coincidentally, a day or two later, I found the above on the internet. You can see it as a rather charming Youtube video - I tried, but failed, to embed it, so you will need to click on the link.

From my google search it seems that this is the whole poem, although most of Victor Hugo's poems are longer. If I am wrong and anyone can enlighten me as to the rest, please leave a comment.

Victor Hugo (1802 - 1885) was a poet, playwright and novelist. Within France his fame comes first from his poetry, but outside France he is best-known for his plays, Les Miserables and The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

For more Tuesday Poems, visit the main hub site and check out the links in the sidebar.

The Year in Photos: September to December 2011

Somehow January seems to have raced away on me, but I didn't want to abandon the "year in photos" series half done. So here is a very quick round up of the rest of the year.

September (after returning from holiday);

I started hill walking again

The "Earth from Above" photo exhibition was part of the Christchurch Arts festival.

October:

We had a minor flood.

Which soaked these flags - displayed on a pre-school fence for the Rugby World Cup

The new temporary "Restart" shopping mall opened

But the city's water reservoirs still have earthquake damage that needs fixing - hence, water restrictions this summer.

November:

I took the opportunity to walk into Cathedral Square (the temporary walkway has now closed again, as there are ongoing demolitions)

I took a weekend trip to Wellington, where I had the uneasy feeling of being among high rise buildings for the first time in a long while - here the new reflects the old.

December:

I visited the Antarctic Centre. The penguins are there because they have injuries which mean they are unable to be released into the wild.

Made the traditional Christmas pudding..

Even the most temporary buildings were getting into the Christmas spirit.

Tuesday Poem: Piano, by D H Lawrence

Piano

Softly, in the dusk, a woman is singing to me;
Taking me back down the vista of years, till I see
A child sitting under the piano, in the boom of the tingling strings
And pressing the small, poised feet of a mother who smiles as she sings.

In spite of myself, the insidious mastery of song
Betrays me back, till the heart of me weeps to belong
To the old Sunday evenings at home, with winter outside
And hymns in the cosy parlour, the tinkling piano our guide.

So now it is vain for the singer to burst into clamour
With the great black piano appassionato. The glamour
Of childish days is upon me, my manhood is cast
Down in the flood of remembrance, I weep like a child for the past.

D H Lawrence 1885 - 1930

I bought quite a few poetry books last year, including the Penguin Classics edition of D H Lawrence's "Selected Poems" which I picked up at Scorpio Books' annual sale. I haven't read it all yet, and previously I was familiar only with "Snake" which we studied at school - not long after the release of his novel "Lady Chatterley's Lover", some thirty years after his death, to a storm of protest over whether or not it should remain banned.

The earlier poems in the book are rhymed metric poems, as in "Piano", from the collection "New Poems" published in 1918. At a quick glance, I prefer these to many of the later, free verse poems - not so much because they are rhymed and metric as because some of the later ones seem a little petulant - full of claims such as "bats are disgusting" and "how beastly the bourgeois are".

This poem is more quietly nostalgic but not without interest. I find it particularly striking that in contrasting the great black piano and the classical singer with the old upright piano of his home, it is the humble childhood to which he ascribes "glamour". And the image of the child sitting under the piano and pressing his mother's feet I find very appealing.

D H Lawrence was born into a miner's family in Nottinghamshire in 1885, the fourth of five children. He wrote novels, plays, short stories and poems. He travelled extensively in Europe, Australia, America and Mexico, and died from tuberculosis in the south of France in 1930 at the age of 44.

For more Tuesday Poems visit the main hub site.

Tuesday Poem: White

White

1

white is proud
she scorns light's caress
returns all gifts
has no form
does not possess
her own shadows

2

the baptismal gown
the daisy chain
the picket fence
the clean sheet

the fallen petals
the spider’s web
the far mountains
the ghost moon

the sharp fang
the winding cloth
the sepulchre
the bleached bones


I have been tidying up my computer files - initially, a relatively simple system of filing my poems and recording submissions was fine, but over the years the number has grown and the information is scattered, so I have started recording all published poems on one spreadsheet.

"White" is a poem from some years back, first published in Takahe issue 50. I always wanted to make it three sections, but the third didn't want to be found, so it remained at two.

For more Tuesday Poems, visit the main hub site. (Check out the blogs listed in the sidebar).

A Year of Photos: August 2011 part 2

At the end of August we went for ten days to Queensland - first to Bargara, near Bundaberg for a few days and then a week in Noosa on the Sunshine Coast. I have far too many photos to post all of the halfway interesting ones - I found when selecting that I was drawn most to the wildlife photos. It turns out that on holiday, I like to photograph birds. lot.

First though, one for Carmi since his Thematic Photographic theme this week is "after dark". This is taken in the centre of Bundaberg - not a very large place, but the home of a well-known brand of ginger beer, and a similarly well-known brand of rum.

Now for some Australian birds:

A magpie - I think

One of the many species of honeyeater

Kookaburra

We photographed these baby birds for quite some time, trying to get a good shot. The parents were flying in and out, feeding them. Unfortunately the only shots that I managed to get with the parents in action were blurred.

And some other wildlife:

We saw the goanna when we took a cruise through the Noosa Everglades, and the dingo was spotted on the beach at Fraser Island, where we took a four wheel drive safari - it is all sand dune territory and the roads are very rough.

The sea eagle was perched on a tree in the everglades, too.

Just for variety, a sign from the art gallery in Bundaberg:

And a sunset to round things off:

A Year of Photos: August 2011

Engineers appeared in our area, checking the soil strength for rebuilding.

There was a craft fair in town:

I found a new area to walk in, which included this beautiful garden:

where I photographed this fellow:

These two were captured at twilight, closer to home:

We had a second big snowfall (this street is near my work - I walked there as it was easier than driving through the snow)

The central city was still cordoned off:

At the end of August we flew away on holiday for ten days, but that deserves its own post.