When a City Falls

2010 on the Canterbury Plains and all is well. Lambs, blue skies and daffodils. In Cathedral Square choir boys sing to their God. Punts push new seasons tourists along the Avon. They photograph the Garden city; the most English city outside of England. We get hit with a 7.1 earthquake. We stand up, wave our fists at the heavens and compliment ourselves on our ability to recover. And then we get hit even harder. Now the city has fallen. Many are dead. Many injured. Many narrowly escape. A fragile people reappear in the following days. We have learnt from the first earthquake and once again a response is growing. Once again adrenaline is taking over. Now the whole country is rallying for Christchurch. Its the energy of the people thats unprecedented. Communities are rising from the sand. People are holding tight to each other. A year later and the quakes keep rolling. Now the Canterbury earthquakes are the most ever quakes recorded in a series. And were still counting....