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I'm Joe. I'm 30 nearly 31 which is scary. Uh, just a pretty Well, I wouldn't say typical. Just a transgender guy. Um, I live in spray now, but when the September 1 hit, I was living in Saint Martin's. Can you describe Saint Martin's to me? What? What kind of housing is there? Um, it's probably middle class, upper middle class sort of housing. Um, it's right at the bottom of the hills over the port hills, so [00:00:30] it's quite nice. It's a really nice family sort of area, which is why I like to live there. And what kind of houses, um, sort of an interesting mix. It's a mix of really, really old ones, sort of early 19 hundreds and pretty much everything is everything through the really ugly seventies stuff right up to really modern things. The old ones are typically made out of wood, but I think most of the newer ones from the sort of sixties onwards the brick stone [00:01:00] and what were you living in? I think my house was made out of stuff from the dump, from what I can tell, um, nominally kind of stone type stuff, but it was a bit of plywood and all that sort of stuff, and it was on piles, which was not a bonus at all. So September the 4th, 2010, there was a major earthquake in Christchurch. Where where were you? I was actually awake, which is amazing. No one else was awake. I was [00:01:30] in bed watching YouTube with a cup of coffee. Because this is about is it 4 a.m. four AM? Yeah, I just woken up for the day. Um, yeah, that was well, I'd never felt anything like it. It was like, OK, what's happening? Oh, my God sort of thing and spilled my coffee on my laptop, which upset me a lot. That probably upset me more than the earthquake did at the start because I didn't really realise how bad things were. It's like, Oh, no, my laptop and I just bought that. And I was like, trying to [00:02:00] tip the coffee off. And I could hear my flatmate screaming. Joe, the house is going to kill us. I was like, Oh, shit, it is actually quite bad. I go outside, so we sort of ran outside and really, what to do after that? it was probably no more than about 30 seconds, but it was pretty major. 30 seconds. It was rough. In what way? What What was the house doing? Um, the whole house was, Well, our house where we were was just shaking the whole thing. It was quite a violent one, from what I can remember anyway. And just everything started falling over [00:02:30] all C, DS stereos, everything out of the cupboards in the kitchen fridge. The fridge fell over washing machine came across the kitchen at us, which was actually kind of cool, but yeah, cats out the door, pot plants everywhere. Basically everything that could fall over did fall over with spices in the middle of the floor. And, yeah, So everybody just stood around outside going, Oh, for about Oh, probably about half an hour. And we were thinking, Oh, my God, what do we do? Because we had no power [00:03:00] or anything like that, so we couldn't even really see what the damage was. And after that, I just went back to bed. That must have been quite weird, actually, like, did the power cut instantly and yeah. Oh, I probably had power for about 10 seconds I was chatting online. I was like, Oh, my God! Earthquake by And that was it pretty much. And then, like the person I was talking to was apparently trying to text me for the next God knows how long he didn't hear back from me. And he's like, Oh, my God, Joe's dead But yeah, that was [00:03:30] scary. And then the power was out for for us, probably half a day. So what was it like, um, racing outside? This is like 4 a.m. in the morning racing outside pitch black. It was really cold, Really. It was cold. That sucks because nobody really had time to grab a dressing gown or anything like that. So just in our PJS boxes and whatnot, I've never seen my neighbours in their underwear before. It was it was pretty random, actually, And everyone was like, Oh, my God. And some people were crying and [00:04:00] we were just sort of standing on the doorstep thinking, Now what do we do? Because you just never prepared for that sort of thing. So pretty much everyone just gathered on the street, Actually, which was quite nice because I didn't know most of my neighbours, but it didn't really seem to matter that much. We just still went out to the street and like, Oh, God, is everyone OK? And then I think most of us went back to bed. So what can you do? Four. In the morning? Can you describe what other people's reactions were like? Um, a few people were crying. [00:04:30] Um, my flatmate was pretty scared. I think, like he didn't want to go back to bed. I was just really tired. So I was going to bed. I don't care, but, oh, a few of the men down my street were a bit angry, swearing and stuff. I think they were just They were shocked as much as anyone else. But it's just the way they were reacting to it. I was just thinking up. I hope I don't have to go to work in the morning, But yeah, it was a bit of a range of everything, really. Some [00:05:00] people cry and little kids were crying because they didn't really understand even what it was. Um, most people will call in their pets if they had them, including me. What? What happened to your cat? Um, my cat came back within a couple of hours. Alex's cat took a couple of days. Some people never got their pets back. But I mean, for us, our area wasn't that badly hit in September. So most of our pets did come back. Sort of pretty angry, like, What have you done to my house kind of thing. [00:05:30] Where's my food? Yeah, they were pretty good that time around. So at the time in the early morning, could you see if there was any damage to the house or or do you just go back in and think it was It was OK. We knew everything had fallen over, using the lights on our cell phones and going, Oh, yeah, there was a big mess in the kitchen and bookcases and everything, and we started to pick a couple of things up, but then thought, This is dark. There's not really any point. [00:06:00] And we're still getting the odd aftershock as well. So I was like, God, there's no point picking anything up until they stop. Because at that point we thought that they would stop Silly us. Uh, I think we just went back to bed after about half an hour an hour. They'll have to deal with it in a few hours. Once it's light. Did the aftershock ski? I think they did then because we never knew whether they were going to be another big one or not. And some of [00:06:30] them did end up being quite big. So now I wouldn't think twice about it like Oh, God, whatever. And then we were like, Oh, my God, what's going to happen next? It could be worse. You never know. Because had there been a lot of earthquakes in Christchurch prior to this? Have you ever experienced just a few really small ones? Like nothing compared to what we felt, but just the odd one People had come into work. Oh, do you feel the earthquake earthquake last night And it would be like a 2.2 or something. Oh, the light. The light bulb [00:07:00] was swaying, so I never felt anything like it. But I know that, um, there have been a few I can't remember any. So the morning rolls around, daylight comes up. What do you do then? Um, I went outside to have a look. Really? I'm a bit nosy. Wanted to see if anyone's house was mounted. But just the neighbours that I knew just want to see if they're OK. Look for the cats, that sort of thing. And everybody was sort of out on the street by then. Just having a bit of a chat. So how's your house? Are you [00:07:30] OK? No one had power. So a couple of people had fires and they were making cups of tea for people and stuff like that, which was nice. And people are starting to pick stuff up in their houses. We're still having aftershocks, though, so we we get too far. Was there any form of communication like phone TV radio? No. Cell phones came on pretty quickly. Oh, compared to february anyway, it wasn't [00:08:00] too bad. There was radio, which was all right. Um, I think I had cell phone back by midmorning About 11 o'clock. Um, yeah, listening to the radio in my car, and that was pretty much it. Trying to get hold of my parents who said we only use our cell phone and emergency, so it's turned off. The 7.1 earthquake is obviously not an emergency. Bloody old people. Oh, my God. [00:08:30] I thought you were dead. Yeah, but I had to go on to work at eight. So I didn't Really? Yeah. Lucky me. Working in a warehouse at that point. So he had to go on and assess the damage and pretty much everything was on the floor. But there wasn't really a lot we could do at home anyway, right? We were sort of just pottering around picking up a few things and did a couple of hours of that, and I got a call from work. So I just went and just started picking [00:09:00] up stuff there instead. And I think it was actually good to be out of the house and away from the panic. It sort of gave us something to do, which was good with your house and in your area. Were there houses that were actually kind of structurally damaged, or was it more just stuff falling over? I think we're pretty lucky in our area at that time. Um, I know my workmates house lost. He lost his chimney and part of the roof just from the chimney, falling in a few houses. Had a wee bit of damage, but they're usually pretty good they were liable anyway, They weren't anything [00:09:30] really major, so we were lucky. Our house was pretty much OK. The front door didn't shut. But no, who cares? The overall kind of emotional response to that first earthquake. How how did you feel? Was it kind of scared Anxious or did it trying to remember some kind of like a hard ass about it now. So I'm trying to remember what I was actually thinking at the time. Um, I don't think I really thought it was anything too major, [00:10:00] like for me personally, me and the people I care about, we're all pretty lucky. So I didn't really know anyone who got hurt or no one's house really got damaged that badly. So it didn't really affect me as much as I thought it would. I think I was just pissed off more than anything because of work. And it was just a major clean up job at work. And I was like, Oh, this is gonna suck so apart from that and just getting aftershocks through the night. So we weren't really sleeping that well, [00:10:30] so everyone was sort of just a little bit more grumpy than we normally would be when your cell phone came back on. Did you have heaps of messages from people saying, you know? Are you OK? And yeah, mostly from people I know overseas. Who heard it? She made news pretty much everywhere. Haven't heard from you. Hope you're not dead. There's lots of those. Please text me back. And eventually one from mum saying we're OK. Thanks, Mum. They they were able to turn the cell phone on. Yeah, [00:11:00] good on them. What about even kind of navigating around Christchurch when you were going to work? Was that tricky? Or I mean, was the ion happening and we didn't actually get much over our side of town at that time. So it wasn't too bad. It was more people just panicking. And then other nosy people who wanted to see damage. I went for a drive to the middle of town just to see, you know, what? It was like a bit messy, but And it was more people [00:11:30] just panicking and like, Oh, my God, we're not gonna be able to get petrol ever that sort of thing. So yeah, So were were there many people kind of sightseeing? Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, I think they just looked at the mess in the house and thought, No, not dealing with that right now. I might as well go and see what everyone else is up to. It was a bit of a mission. It was sort of like a mess you just don't want to have to deal with. And it's just still dirt and cooking oil and washing powder. I was like, Oh, no, [00:12:00] I have to go and look at something else since did. So How long did it take for you to clean up the place? I don't like mess, So it probably took me a couple of days just after work on the weekend. It wasn't too bad that and my flatmate wasn't working. I think so. He just cleaned up and you got the oven back into the fridge. Washing machine, Massive washing machine. Yeah, oven everything back. And we had power back pretty early, so she wasn't that bad. So the aftershocks did they just [00:12:30] continue to happen after September? We had a few around five Mark and they're pretty. That's big enough. Where we sort of stop for a second. Dead still and think Is this gonna be another big one? Anything smaller than that? And we'll just stop for a second. Oh, that was a decent one. And off we go. But the bigger ones, we just never know because it sounds exactly the same as when the big ones hit. They all start out the same way, and that's that's the scariest noise for me now [00:13:00] is just hearing an earthquake coming? It's just horrible. What does it sound like? It sounds like a truck's coming past. It's just this sort of like rumbling sound. So now, pretty much every time a truck drives past me anywhere, I just stop like an earthquake trains or anything. I just like Oh my God! So that's quite freaky, actually, it still affects us like that, and it affects everyone. Even when I was overseas last year, I was in America and a truck drove past and I just froze and it was like earthquake [00:13:30] and my friends were just staring at me like what is he on drugs? So that's how it starts off. How does the sound change? Um, I don't really know. I think the sound starts, and then when everything starts shaking. We just sort of forget about the sound and they go, Oh, bugger. I think most of us don't even bother getting under the doorways or under things anymore. We just can't be bothered. We did the first time. And then, yeah, the aftershocks. We did the first few times and then thought, [00:14:00] Oh, no, can't be bothered. You just stay really still. And unless it gets worse, we just stay there and then we carry on. After that September earthquake, it was as if, um, I remember in the media that they were saying, Oh, you know, Christchurch has miraculously escaped with no injuries. Did a little, uh, weren't we really fortunate Somebody was smiling on us? Was there any thought that there was gonna be a, uh, another big one coming up and that would cause so much damage? I think the scientists, [00:14:30] the pessimistic scientists, are always saying that they're still saying that now Oh, you're going to get a nine, something like that. But there's no point in thinking about it. A few people I know did get quite emotionally invested in the whole earthquake thing, and they kind of obsess over it on what's gonna happen next, But I think the rest of us would rather just get on with it because it's gonna hit. If it's gonna hit, there's nothing we can do. All we can do is just make sure we've got our civil defence kits ready and try to be as safe as we can and [00:15:00] that that's what we can do now. So, yeah, they are still saying we're going to get another one and they were saying the whole time. Oh, this could be the first in a series of big earthquakes, but I don't think we really wanted to know about it then. I don't think we do now, either. It's not worth worrying about. So did you have a civil defence kit prior to the September 1? Yeah, which is amazing, because I'm not usually that growing up, but, um, it smashed in the earthquake because the bookcase fell on it, which was ironic and quite funny. Actually, the bookcase fell [00:15:30] on our civil defence kit. That's quite funny. Except now we have no water. OK, I had to laugh, though it was just irony at its best. So almost six months later, on the 22nd of February, there was another big earthquake. I think it was about 6.3. Where were you for that? I was at work pretty much the centre of town. Slightly east. They got hit pretty hard. Um, I was driving a forklift down an aisle [00:16:00] of well, either side of the aisle were stacked up 205 litre drums of oil. So that was scary. That didn't actually fall down, But I was incredibly lucky. Um, you know, the whole forklift was just rolling from side to side, and I was like, What do I do now? So I had a set, and that that was absolutely terrifying. Um, yeah, there was liquefaction pouring out of the ground, and the ground was all cracked. And, you know, the truck that I was working on was just rolling [00:16:30] from side to side, and it was a massive truck, so that was terrifying, like, a million times worse than September 1. And it was during the day, so more people were out and about, which was really unfortunate when you were in the forklift. Could you actually hear the earthquake coming? Or I didn't hear it coming because I was on the forklift, which is pretty noisy. So first thing I knew everything was just shaking and rolling backwards and forwards. It was pretty scary, like the whole. [00:17:00] The forklifts are pretty stable, but that was I just had to brace myself. It nearly tipped over, so that was scary. Really scary. How many people were working in the warehouse? Probably about what would have been about six of us there at the time. Now it's a big open yard with, I think, three different warehouses and an office. I was the only person in that one, and there were a few others scattered around a couple of shipping containers that would have been quite scary, too. [00:17:30] Those things, the whole shipping containers are moving, and all the stuff was just falling down. That must be really surreal where the the whole everything around you is just in a state of movement. It was pretty freaky. Was there nothing holding up those drums? Or were they just staying there by themselves, staying there by themselves? And that was because they were so heavy pellets about a tonne. So anything lighter would have been over, like all the other stuff that we had in the warehouse like toilet paper and stuff stacked up that was just everywhere. [00:18:00] So if they had actually fallen over, would that have been pretty much curtains for you? Or I don't know how much the roll cage on a forklift can take, but if a whole pallet of them have fallen over, that would have been pretty nasty. I imagine I would have at least dented it, and I could have been quite unlucky. If my forklift had fallen over and a drum had fallen on me, I'd be dead. So it was scary. So when that's happening, what's going through your head? I hope I don't have to stay [00:18:30] at work pretty much like Please don't make me stay at work. So I just started freaking out. I thought, This is so much worse than the last one. Our house is going to be absolutely muted. I wonder what the cats are doing. I wonder what my flatmates doing. I wonder if my parents are OK and I just wanted to get home pretty much so. We've already been through one earthquake, so we had that sense of impending doom, really, and it seemed a lot longer because it was so bad. Some people [00:19:00] say, like in accidents, how time kind of just slows down and everything's in slow motion, Do you? Was that a kind of feeling you had? Yeah, it was horrible. It seemed like a lot longer than it actually was. And what about the noise? It was pretty extreme because all the concrete was ripping up and there was liquefaction just pouring out of the ground and you could hear people screaming, which was horrible. People from the place across the road from us screaming and all my workmates swearing and me swearing and [00:19:30] yeah, stuff crashing over everything. Cars. Had you ever experienced liquefaction before? No. That is really weird, isn't it? It's freaky stuff. It's just a nightmare. So it literally does concrete, you know, does paving just kind of turn into a liquidy kind of thing? Yeah, the ground just splits open, and this mud liquid mud just comes up. It's just nuts, and it just comes pouring out like a geyser. It's crazy, [00:20:00] and I saw cars just face down. They're just driven into this big pool of liquefaction and yeah, it's crazy. And lamp posts are just halfway down the hole. And yeah. So where you were, How how deep was the liquefaction? Probably about six inches to a foot, right through the yard and through the warehouses and stuff. And so suddenly you find yourself walking through, like a Fort Worth of [00:20:30] muddy slush. Can you Can you describe what that kind of slush was, like? Just like, really, really wet, slightly mud? Pretty much, Yeah. I've never really seen anything like it since. It's just crazy stuff. We didn't really know what to do because it just kept coming. When's it gonna stop coming out? When can we start cleaning up and try to go home? Because we just didn't know when it was going to stop or if it was gonna stop. So just going back to the kind of instance after the earthquake, what was the first thing you did? [00:21:00] Uh, I ran into the middle of the yard and tried to find my workmates, and we all sort of met up in the middle of the yard and thank God everyone was all right. And then we stood there and swore a little bit and then tried to think of a game plan. What are we going to do? Obviously we want to get home. But the electric gates were broken and to try to secure all the buildings and stuff. So we sort of sat there for about 10 minutes and just got our breath back and said Right, OK, we're all OK now. What are we gonna do? Everyone was trying to ring out, but yeah, no cell reception. [00:21:30] We talk about for an hour to secure the site. Enough that we could all go home. Then I had to try to get home, which was a mission, because my area was hit really hard in February. So it took me about an hour and a half to get home. It would normally take me about 10 minutes, and the roads were just completely torn up, all lumpy and full of liquefaction, and all the traffic lights were out and everything. It was actually really heartbreaking. Just seeing people standing in the driveways, watching the liquefaction pour into their house and [00:22:00] not really knowing what to do. But thankfully, I was up on the hill a little bit, so our house didn't have any liquefaction, but yeah, even down the bottom of our street. It was pretty bad. Can you describe for me the journey from your workplace back home? Because I'm assuming that there's a lot of people trying to move around. And I mean, were you were you driving a car or how were you getting years driving a car? And I've only got a little Nana car, so I didn't really cope that well, So I was just hoping I made it home in one piece, and then when I got [00:22:30] there, my house would still be there. So going through the city streets, I mean, what did you see? Um, pretty much just this big trail of destruction. I didn't really know what to expect. But there were houses that were almost completely over, and roofs and chimneys and stuff. Uh, fences had fallen over. Walls have fallen down, liquefaction just pouring into people's houses and shops and stuff. Lots of car crashes, a lot of fences fallen into [00:23:00] parked cars and things like that and lots of people running and crying, which was horrible. Where were they running to? I think that most people are just trying to get home. I just wanted to get home a lot of emergency sirens, lots of car alarms and stuff like Every time we get an aftershock and the car starts shaking, it's just this cacophony of car alarms, pretty much and fire engines and police cars and stuff. Ambulances. [00:23:30] A lot of people crying, a lot of people swearing and not again. We already thought this stuff was over by now, but everyone was still remarkably upbeat, which is a bit scary, actually upbeat. In what way? What's the That's over. You know, we've We've had the earthquake. What are we gonna do? So we all sort of banded together, which was really cool and sort of helped each other out where we could. It was good. So you're driving [00:24:00] back home and you're coming to a couple of areas that you that's your neighbourhood. Can you describe for me what kind of damage you're seeing? Um, a lot of fences down, a lot of liquefaction down the bottom of the hill. Um, a lot of roof tiles missing, that sort of thing. Few car accidents. That's pretty much it. It was pretty. I think the inside of people's houses were damaged [00:24:30] more than the outside in a lot of cases, so it didn't look like it looked a lot worse than September, but it didn't look anywhere near as bad as it actually was. So you got back to your place, and And how did you find it? It was still upright, but not really in a very good kind of way. Um, it had moved. There was a big crevasse, right diagonally right through a property about probably 2 ft wide. And I couldn't see the bottom of it. Except to see the smashed sewer pipes. Of course, which made me really happy. [00:25:00] No toilet. Um, And that went right under my bedroom, which was freaky. Like, I don't want to go to bed. Um, it had moved off its piles down the hill a little bit. Um, probably about nearly your foot. Probably about 89 inches. Um, apart from that, it didn't actually look that bad. Um, we're still upright, apart from the crazy Creve in the middle [00:25:30] of the lawn. Um, we didn't actually notice it was off its piles. We didn't really go around the back. We just sort of tried to get inside. The front door was wide open. Um, yeah. So first impressions, it wasn't actually that bad, so I just sort of wandered up and then saw the mess inside. And that was probably wasn't any worse than the last time, but the floor was pretty muted. The whole house was it twisted? Completely. So none of the doors [00:26:00] really shut. Um, couldn't get the bathroom door shut or the front door. Some of the piles under the middle of the lounge had gone, So you couldn't really walk across the floor that the whole thing sagging, which was pretty creepy. People wouldn't come visit us. Um, even when my cat walked across, you could feel it. Or if she jumped off the coffee table onto the ground, the whole house would shake. So that was pretty freaky. Um, yeah. No water. Um, yeah. [00:26:30] The drain next to our house erupted. So that was some nice sewage for us. Awesome. Try to keep the cats out of that. That's fun. Yeah. So that was Yeah. We got hit pretty hard that time. The the cats. I mean, did they did they run away and come back or how did how did they cope with the earthquake? Uh, yeah, they both ran away. Um, we slept in the backyard that night because we couldn't sleep in our house because it was just terrifying. [00:27:00] Um, yeah, My cat came back about halfway through the night and decided to jump on the outside of the tent and scare the crap out of us. But that's my cat for Alex's cat. Came back in a couple of days, I think. Yeah, we just kept going back outside and waiting, and eventually she came back. So that initial thing when you drive up to the house, you look at it, you start looking inside. Did you ever think I'm not? I'm just not going in here because it was too muted. No, not really. [00:27:30] Should be worried about that sort of thing. But not really. I just wanted to make sure some of my price positions were OK and they weren't. So Then I got upset. But apart from that, I that I need to go and just check things out and make sure the cats actually went inside when it hit because, yeah, that would suck. Just wanted to see how bad things were, but we had some pretty nasty aftershocks pretty soon afterwards. So they were, Yeah, I've been running outside every time. One of those hit I thought I just [00:28:00] hung around, smoked a couple of cigars cos I really needed it. And, um, I waited for my flatmate Alex to get home, and then he came and looked at the house, said, Where are the cats? We just looked at the inside of the house and with how bad the aftershocks were that time, we thought, There's no point picking anything up because the aftershocks are still like 5.85 0.9. It's just it's not worth picking anything up. So how often would they be happening? Probably every 20 minutes, half an hour. Cos I didn't really get much [00:28:30] sleep for a few days. They were pretty bad. But we just, uh, both of us really like old people. We think old people are cool. So yeah, we saw, like quite a few live down the bottom of our street. So we just sort of went down and helped them shovel liquefaction and stuff because it's just heartbreaking. Just seeing old people, you know, it's the house, they're retiring and and they're just thinking our house is muted and, you know, they can't really look after themselves that well, So we went out to help them out. There's nothing we can do at our place. We're not. We don't have liquefaction, [00:29:00] so we might as well just do something else. Be productive. Help some people out. How were the older people coping with they? I think they were quite lost. I didn't really know what to do. Like you never prepared for anything like that. And this liquefaction was just pouring into their houses and they just they had their shovels and, you know, there were some of them, probably like, 90 they shouldn't have to deal with that sort of stuff. Their life should be easy for them. So [00:29:30] yeah, a lot of them were just sort of standing there or doing their best, but they just didn't really know how to cope with it. Was there much kind of community? Um kind of getting together and and helping older people like that? Yeah, Everyone was really, really good. I was quite impressed because for some reason, my neighbourhood is quite insular. We didn't really talk to each other that much, but Everything changed after the earthquake, so it was pretty good. We sort of made friends with a few people on the street. We never met before, even though we lived there for two years, [00:30:00] especially the old people just sort of checking in on them and saying, you know, you need a hand with anything and that was really, really good. Everyone was pretty good. Anyone who had a fire was making huge big pots of tea and cups of coffee for people. And everyone was just sort of sharing what they had, which was really nice at this stage. You had no power? No, we didn't have power for two weeks. Yeah, fun. [00:30:30] That must be quite a weird mindset to be in because, I mean, we're in quite a developed country, and we've got power and sewage and water. And then to have all that taken away, Yeah, because we lost it for half a day. I think in September, that was bad enough. No Internet for six hours, and then we just had nothing, you know, going to the toilet in bags and garden and just it was [00:31:00] horrible. There was a water tanker parked down the bottom of our street. At the primary school, which was good, we had to go down and fill up our water there, and we still had to boil it hand sanitizer. No one had a shower for like a week, but thankfully, the west side of the city didn't get hit very hard, and most of them still have power. So a lot of us had just sort of hit over to family or friends over there and have a shower every couple of days. The rest of the time, it's sort of like a bucket with a flannel in the bathroom, which was really gross. [00:31:30] Oh, it's disgusting. But even things like boiling water, I mean, some people, I guess, wouldn't have the ability to even do that. Yeah, we just had a camp stove, which is again impressive, because I'm not usually that grown up, but it was sort of like cold washes because all the effort it takes to boil the water, you don't want to use it for washing. We didn't get to do our laundry for a couple of weeks. What about food? We didn't do too badly. We had quite a big stockpile, but [00:32:00] our local supermarket was muted. Actually, probably the closest five or six supermarkets were all muted, so we had to drive quite a long way to get food. It was like a three hour drive. It would normally take about 20 minutes, but it was taking up to three hours to get there because all the roads that people would normally take were all muted and closed off. So the ones that were open, just completely congested. It would take so long to get anywhere. But I didn't have much choice. There wasn't really much fresh food to be had for a while. [00:32:30] Um, we were driving way out to the west of the city just to get food, and even then we were still thinking, Well, we can't really cook. So what are we gonna do? It's mostly baked beans and noodles, and stuff like that must also be quite weird to be in a suburb that was hit and then to be able to drive with a wee bit and and you're into places that were damaged. But my brother's place, 20 minute drive away. You never even know there was an earthquake. He had Internet water, toilet I was so pissed [00:33:00] off, so uncool. But yeah, my parents are hit even worse than I was. They were right in there in the red zone, so they had absolutely nothing. Their house is mounted. So yeah, we're all off to my brother's place every couple of days and going to my auntie's place to do a load of washing. We like a five minute shower each because even people who did have water had to ration it pretty carefully. That it was that the miracle [00:33:30] of the flushing toilet. I went to my brother's place like, Can I borrow a toilet? This is so cool. It's amazing. I even now I still appreciate having a flushing toilet you're using the word muted quite a bit, and I'm wondering, where did that come from? Because a lot of people in Christchurch say that. Do you know where it kind of originated from? Um, so what? I used to use a lot when I was a kid, like 12 13. 0, it's muted and also like the cool word to use then so early nineties kind of thing. But there is no other [00:34:00] way to describe it at the moment. either muted or bug it. It's really the only way to describe a lot of the city. It's quite definitive, I think muted. It's got a real kind of full stop. Yeah, sound. I think Bob Parker even used it. Christchurch is Ted, which it is. It's just Yeah, it's a bit of a mess. Did you have much to do with, um, like the emergency services [00:34:30] or the the council services? Were they quite, um, rapid in getting stuff to you guys? They were actually pretty good. Um, not so much at my place. But I know with my parents, they were really, really good. Like, within a couple of days, they were coming around with care packages and stuff, which was really cool. Um, I think in the first, probably about a week after the earthquake, we had the Red Cross come round to our place and do a little survey to see if we were coping ok mentally and whether we had access to the things that we needed. [00:35:00] So that was pretty cool. Yeah, that was about it, though, but yeah, I think the emergency services were pretty onto it. They they treated my parents really well. And do you think people were coping mentally? I think people were because they didn't have a choice. I think immediately after the earthquake, people are coping a lot better than they were a couple of months down the track. It was definitely the case for me at the time. We were just in survival mode watch list Did we have? We've just got to get it sorted. But a couple [00:35:30] of months down the track when everything's still muted, still getting aftershocks, Some people still don't have power. We're just over it by then and two months of not much sleep and everyone was just getting really, really pissed off. I think everyone was just on edge all the time. Um, I know a lot of people who are normally quite anxious, people who become incredibly anxious. I became a bit more anxious, a lot more frustrated. It just takes less time for people to get irritated [00:36:00] and we tend to snap at each other a little bit more and it still even now we still get it. We just because everything nothing's the same and there's still stuff that's just really frustrating. Like looking on Google Maps and it tells you to go through the centre of town and you can't. And it's no this. Yeah, there's always stuff that we still can't do. But you're right. Afterwards, people were just getting snapping at each other and we would still banding together. But everyone was just really tired. And No-one really felt safe and secure anymore. [00:36:30] We just didn't know what was gonna happen thinking, Well, September was bad. This one was worse. What's gonna happen next? So we're trying to sort it out, you know, good kiwis to sort of get on with things. But it was pretty rough for a while there for your friends that maybe were a bit anxious. Was there any kind of medical, um, help they could get? Was that was Was that easily accessible? Yeah, it was actually pretty good. Um, I know a few people who got prescriptions for anxiety medication counselling, [00:37:00] that sort of thing. So I went to a bit of counselling myself. I thought I might be coping a little bit too well, thinking there's got to be something going on there. So I went to counselling, just sort of made sure I was doing all right. And do you think? Is that one of the signs that actually you, you know, outwardly you appear to be coping kind of better than expected. Yeah, Yeah, because I am prone to depression and anxiety. So I thought I should be pretty well mounted by then as well, [00:37:30] but I was fine. Well, yeah, but yeah, it turned out I actually was quite quite upset. So counselling was a good thing just to make sure I was doing all right, actually accepted how I was feeling realised that it was actually OK, because it's always the sort of situation there is always someone who's worse off than me. None of my family or friends died, and I know people who died, and that was really sad. But it was no one I was really close to. I my [00:38:00] house didn't completely fall down even though we had to move out because we couldn't live in it. Um, I was pretty lucky. So I felt sort of guilty for feeling upset about it. Yeah, well, so many people are worse off than me. Why am I feeling like crap? But not everyone handles things in their own way, so the house that you were in. Did you? Did you own it or were you renting it? And how did that work in terms of you and the landlord? I think he wanted us to stay because [00:38:30] he needed the rent and all of our other his other properties were completely stuffed, so she really needed the money. But it just wasn't We couldn't just couldn't live there. We stayed for probably a week after the earthquake, and he sort of grudgingly gave us a reference and said, Oh, yeah, OK, you can move out because we hadn't given the 21 days notice, Because why would you Really? Yeah, he was. You turn into a bit of a idiot [00:39:00] after we moved out. Like getting the bond back and stuff. How can you even like no one's gonna live there? But he wanted us to do a garden and stuff. So it's a bit crevasse. No one's gonna live here. There's no toilet. There's no power. You're not going to rent it out. So why are we doing the garden? But we just wanted our bomb back, so we just got on with it. What was it like trying to find a new place to live. Thankfully, we got onto it pretty early and we were looking probably two or three days after [00:39:30] the earthquake and we saw a house and sprayed in that said, no earthquake damage. And we just rang up that day. Went around that day, paid the bond that day, and we moved in a few days after that while everyone else was still panicking and going. Oh, no, I thought right. Housing is gonna be the premium. Let's move now. So we got into a new place, pretty hassle free. Actually, it was easy. And that was the selling point. You know, that there was no earthquake damage. You had a toilet [00:40:00] you had. Yeah, we knew the spray and hadn't been hit that hard in either of them. There was damage, like the house has a few cracks and that sort of thing, and the bathroom door opens by itself, which is a bit disturbing sometimes, but it's it's pretty good. It's a really, really old house. It's built 1900 or something, and it stood up better than most of the new houses. Did things like rent increase because of the the the premium on the housing. Yeah, I think we're paying $30 a week [00:40:30] more than the last tenant was, which is pretty rough. We pay quite a lot for where we are, but it's a nice enough house, and we're not going to get any better for that sort of money in Christchurch at the moment. So, yeah, it's a nice area. So it is. I think the rent is quite high at the moment, though. People are paying a lot more than they normally would. But if they want to stay in Christchurch, it's just what you gotta do. What is the housing market like now? Do you know, like for rentals? There's not much [00:41:00] out there like just trying to find somewhere to live. I saw an article in the paper where some people living in their cars because they even though they work, they just can't afford a place somewhere. That's decent, anyway, Um, so they're living in their cars or they're just living at hostels and that sort of thing, it's just the rent for even a one bedroom place is like 200 something a week, and if you're working for minimum wage you just can't do it. I mean, even now, there's only two of us living in our place, and we can barely make it. And I work full time, [00:41:30] so that sucks. Not much money. And what kind of rent are you paying at the moment? Uh, 3 30 a week or a three bedroom, Which is it doesn't sound that bad in the grand scheme of things, but there are only two of us, and Yeah, Alex lost his job in the earthquake, and he's only just got it back in the last couple of months. What was he doing? Um, he was managing a gay cruise club, all right, in the centre of town, on the top [00:42:00] floor of a building. So that's where he was when the earthquake hit. Lots of naked men running down the stairs and lots of naked women from the massage parlour across the road. I can be for scared people. He, um he was actually on the front page of the paper the next day. Um, you could see him trying to walk home as all the buildings were collapsing around him. It was a pretty epic picture. Actually. It's quite scary. thinking, You know, that's my best friend right there and all the stuff falling down behind him. [00:42:30] So, yeah, he was a bit of a mess for a while, which is understandable. Ahead up. It was a lot more scary for him, and they're trying to keep everybody in town and let him a square. And he had to literally run away from the police and trying to make him stay there. And he's like, No, I have to go home. So he walked all the way home, which is quite a long way. It's about probably took him like an hour and a half to get home. I think it's interesting that that kind of just primal desire to get home, make sure the friends [00:43:00] and the cats are OK. Then the parents after that, Firstly, so do you. Do you think it's had a long term effect on Alex? Um, no, I don't think so, Not really, but it's more just irritating. Now that stuff's still not open, and we're still really, you know, there's nowhere to hang out in town, that sort of thing. It's just annoying, really. But [00:43:30] yeah, we're both OK. It was just sucked for a while after the earthquake because he lost his job and I still have mine. My job sucked because I was picking up stuff after the earthquake. It was horrible, like picking up muddy boxes of tissues and stuff. But then he had the added pressure of money and trying to find somewhere to live when you don't have a job and you're trying to find a bond and that sort of thing. And luckily, both of us had some savings, so we could afford to just move. But yeah, money was a big factor for both of us for a while. [00:44:00] But we both got grants from the Red Cross, so that was quite cool. You got $500 each to help pay the bond and rent in advance and food, that sort of thing. So Alex was working. It was a It was a gay kind of cruise club sauna type thing. Did the earthquake knock out a lot of kind of gay and lesbian venues? Pretty much all of them, actually. All of them at town. So every single one [00:44:30] was gone. So what did people do for a while? We didn't really do anything um we just focused on being ok, making sure we had somewhere to live, work, that sort of thing. But, you know, a few months down the track we like. Now what do we do? There's nowhere to go. And it doesn't bother me because I don't go out anywhere anyway. Um, that you Cruise was closed. Me and friends was closed, everything was shut down. So I think there [00:45:00] have been a few, if I remember correctly, which is unlikely. There have been some dance parties and that sort of thing there have been, Yeah, just sort of big gay parties. Um, I think a couple of cruise clubs opened a bit more bit further out. There are a couple around in Walston, and Alex's ones just opened up in Walston as well. Um, people need their casual sex after earthquakes. Obviously. Um, but it's been pretty rough because Christchurch [00:45:30] is queer. Scene has been pretty. People don't really try very hard. They put a lot of effort into the queer scenes, so it was kind of floundering anyway, I think, except for cruise, which is always popular. Um so, yeah, after the earthquake, it just pretty much went completely underground for quite a while. But Cruise is open now, so people hanging out there and starting to do things around the edges again, back doing all the sort of groups that we used to do, like the tramping group and cycling and [00:46:00] that sort of thing. So that's cool. How do you think, Um, the earthquakes have affected the queer community down here? I'd like to say that it banded us together, but I don't think it really did. I think we're pretty much the same as we were before. Um, in some ways it's brought us closer because everybody knows everyone else because it's Christchurch. Um, we all know someone who died pretty much, and that's quite it's a bit of a reality check, Really. Um, [00:46:30] yeah, I think everything. I think people maybe are not quite as into going out as much as they used to be there. Really, there is only Cruise that's open now, and we all got used to if we wanted to hang out with other queer people, we had to go to people's houses, have barbecues, that sort of thing, and we tend to still do that quite a bit rather than sort of just head to cruise because that's what everyone always does. So I think that's quite good, because I'm a bit of a nano and I don't really like clubs [00:47:00] and late nights and drinking and stuff so so hanging out more casually is something that I enjoy. So that's good for me. It's quite interesting, even just around this area where we're staying. I've really noticed that the people around here have done it really hard. You know, they they they look like they've had a really miserable time. I think immediately after the earthquake, the sale of alcohol went up quite a lot. Because what are people gonna do? Get drunk? Um, but now [00:47:30] we're just tired. Even now it's still Well, I'm still tired because it still affects us all the time. We still hear about it on the news. Just about every day. Something with the E QC. They're knocking down this building. They're doing that building and red zone people arguing about the government offer. And, uh, you can't get away from it, right? Pretty much if I didn't read the paper or listen to the news, I would never know there'd been an earthquake because I live in an area that's not really damaged [00:48:00] and my work's not damaged because I've got a new job. Um, but you we always hear about it. And personally, I'm quite sick of hearing about it because it doesn't. I kind of feel selfish because it doesn't really affect me personally, so I really don't care anymore. I'm just over it, but yeah, I sort of have to be a bit involved because my parents are building a new house and they got bought out, and helping them move from the land of destruction over in the East was pretty. That was rough. It's just like a ghost town over there now. There's no [00:48:30] one living there. It's interesting. Well, I mean, even around this area, you know, walking down the streets, it's peppered with houses that are just completely overgrown. I've just been kind of left, haven't they? It's not Yeah, yeah, my parents areas like that. I drove through it last weekend just to see what it was like, and they moved out a few weeks ago. Um, there's no one living on the street anymore, and the grass is all overgrown and stuff It's really sad because people used to really take pride in their houses over there. Especially everything was immaculate. It was a street full of old people. [00:49:00] The gardens were all perfect, and now everything is just all overgrown. It's really depressing. There's still big mountains and liquefaction everywhere. It's horrible. So which area were they in? They were in New Brighton, so they hit pretty hard. I mean, the house looks like it's fine, but the land is bunted or the concrete pad the house is on, I think. And my dad was saying, It's a shame to have to move out because, you know, 95% of the world's population will be happy to have a house like this, Like on the inside. You couldn't [00:49:30] really tell, but we did some measurements outside, and it dropped about 20 centimetres down one side. So it was Obviously I couldn't fix it, But it's a shame to move out, because really, it looked like there wasn't much wrong with it. Yeah, it was quite depressing, especially for my mom. She found that quite hard because they bought their house to retire into, and they put a lot of work and money into getting it the way they would like it. And now they have to build again. And they're like, 60 they just don't want to. But what choice do they have? Was [00:50:00] it a hard decision for them to, like, accept the government offers or no. Well, it wasn't really gonna get any better. They couldn't stay where they were basically had, like, I think, nine months to move out. And the price of land was just going to go up. So they thought, right. We just get in, just buy the land, Just get the ball rolling before other people start building their houses and just do it. I'm guessing that if you don't get in early with this kind of stuff, the the wait time for actually even some [00:50:30] some kind of building. I mean, it would just be a Yeah, I know some people who are still, um, haven't accepted the government offer or they have, but they haven't decided where they're going to build yet, because maybe something better will come up. But maybe I won't. So I think they should get on to it. But then again, it's not me having to make that decision. So it's easy for me to say, What do you think of the media coverage? The the the kind of national media coverage of Of the Quakes? [00:51:00] Um, I get sick of people feeling sorry for us. That's really irritating. At first it was nice, because, really, our lives sucked pretty much for a while. But now I'm just, Well, people don't really feel sorry for us anymore. But it's all really political, which I don't really. It's not really the point. The point is to get Christchurch back up and running. Not what the mayor said versus this guy. E QC Let everyone blame the E QC. I mean, I don't know how much we can honestly expect from them, [00:51:30] and they've never had to deal with this before, either. So everyone's just sort of doing this for the first time. But he has always seemed to be some sort of complaining, going on about something, and they knocking down this building and the engineers don't want to because of this and are only over it. So, like in terms of heritage buildings in Christchurch, uh, do you have any thoughts about whether they should be trying to be kept or I think it's really sad. Um, I get quite upset because I really like history and that sort of thing. So I get [00:52:00] I get upset when they have to knock one over. But at the same time, the rational part of me says, Well, if it's unsafe, we're not gonna be able to enjoy it anyway. So they have to go. They have to go and stuff like that does happen all the time everywhere. So it's not just us. You know. Christchurch isn't just the special place that losing all its heritage buildings, it does happen all the time, and that's how I sort of try to rationalise it. But it does upset me when I drive through town and I don't see half the buildings that have been there for my whole life, [00:52:30] and that's quite rough, so kind of overall. How do you think the earthquakes and the the last year have affected you? How has it changed you? I think there's sort of an underlying fatigue in general, like I'm just really, really sick of it, like I'm still I think, quite a positive person. But I'm also really, really realistic now more than I used to be about, like my own personal limitations. Especially [00:53:00] like if I can't cope with something, I'm pretty realistic about it. Um, I take pretty much every opportunity I can get to get some peace and quiet these days. Uh, it means a lot more to me than it used to, and I always used to like a lot of quiet time, but now I just absolutely crave it. Just time where there are no earthquakes, no one's talking at me. I seem to need that a lot more than I used to. And it's also sort of changed my perspective on a lot of things for me personally. Like my transition, Um, the [00:53:30] September 1 hit two months after I started hormone therapy. Really, it puts things in perspective because two months into my transition, I was complaining on YouTube about how I don't have a bed. Oh my God, I've got one chin here and then really, you have a 7.1 earthquake and then a 6.3 and I think really my chin here does not matter at all, so I've become a bit more reasonable and less selfish. about that sort of thing, which is a bonus, because I did tend to obsess about it quite a lot, which I think is quite normal [00:54:00] for people transitioning. But it's really put things in perspective in a good kind of way.
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