I have been feeling quite numb all week. Not really sure how to process what has happened. Writing seems to help, so here goes. Brain dump…

In the early hours of Monday morning 14 November 2016, much of New Zealand was shaken awake by a prolonged and violent earthquake, absolutely devastating a large portion of the north east coast of the South Island (just north of us) and damaging buildings in our capital city, Wellington.

As I lay in my bed, feeling the earth ripple beneath me for what felt like about two minutes, I could tell it was a very big earthquake a long way away. 7.8 magnitude to be precise, centred about 100km north of our city. You see us Cantabrians consider ourselves earthquake connoisseurs. In 2010 the city of Christchurch in the South Island was ripped apart by a series of strong earthquakes, followed by over 15,000 aftershocks…