Quake day

9/4/2010
Katelyn and I had talked yesterday about how smoothly we thought this trip had gone. We really didn't have any problems whatsoever!

And then there was the quake.

Oops, spoke too soon.

I woke up multiple times the night before, once to my bed rattling. But since they were rattily-type-bunks I figured it was just the guy below me shifting around, and quickly fell back asleep. Katelyn woke up first and woke me to tell me Jane had texted everyone to see if we all were safe because there had been a massive earthquake in Christchurch. Sure enough when I checked my phone, it was filled with messages about it. We both ran upstairs to the TV lounge to see if we could find the news.
Arg, frustration! We spent at least half an hour flipping through channels trying to find even the smallest scrape of information on this quake, but the only things on were sports news(aka, rugby) and children's shows(which were scary, and shouldn't be shown to children) until finally we found a minute or two piece that mentioned it in between sports sections. It wasn't helpful, but it was something.

Our Canadian roommate was also going to Christchurch on the same bus, when we told him, he out and out panicked. Which, while highly amusing, was not productive to our own state of mind. The desk manager told us that a earlier bus from a different company had already turned around and come back. Also not a good sign. But Katelyn and I figured we could just spend another night somewhere else if we had too. Though at this point we both just really wanted to get back, earthquake or not earthquake.

Our first concern of there not even being a bus turned out fine. It was right on time. The driver took time to warn us he didn't know what the situation was in Chch, and hopefully when we switched drivers the new one would know more.

Insert long bus ride here.
It was beautiful(I use that word to much, but it's always true!) the rain forests on the west coast gave way to a much more scraggly terrain, but it was stunning in it's own right. This driver also let us stop twice to take pictures, as you can imagine I was beyond ecstatic for this.

Mt. Cook is in the center 

Of course, the beautiful views didn't stop our concern for what was happening in Chch.
Thankfully I talked to both of my flat mates that were still at Uni, and both were fine. That took the biggest worry off of my mind. But with barely any information about what was going on, We were still a little unsure as to what to expect.

When we finally did get back, you could barely tell there had been a 7.1 earthquake, at least in the Uni area.I got to my flat and found my flat mates a little frazzled, but solving any post-earthquake shakes with chocolate and doughnuts, so clearly they were going to be fine. I spent the night being introduced to exactly how a aftershock feels... over, and over and over again.