Earthquake today

Hi there

Goodness, there was an earthquake, 6.2, over the lower North Island this afternoon (Monday NZ time) at 3.50 p.m. and centred at ...wait for it! .... Eketahuna.   What a good thing I wasn't there and swimming in the river!   The Four Square (mini supermarket) in Eketahuna ,where I went last week to buy my light bulb, has had a lot of damage.  Photos of the shop's interior look like a bomb site. 

I hope Mt Bruce wildlife centre is okay, that the rare little white kiwis arent traumatised.

The thing is I didn't feel the earthquake today.  The tv is full of pictures of things falling off supermarket shelves, swimming pools overflowing, people running from buildings, ornaments toppling, and I was completely oblivious to the whole thing.  Some time this afternoon, I did hear a sort of something falling, but put it down to the wind.  Maybe that was the quake?

Have just heard from my swimming friend, J.  She was in the supermarket when the quake struck and was surrounded by objects crashing down from shelves.

Lots of reports are coming through about damage in Wellington, all minor, I think so far.  The Hobbit sculptured bird that Weta had suspended at Wellington Airport came down from its harness - see below photo taken from the stuff website. Some reporters have not been able to resist talking about "The Eagle Has Landed".  You may remember that I had taken a photo of the two birds flying high and put them on my blog a couple of weeks back.  It's the bird without Gandalf riding it that came down, the one that looks as if it's flying like an inch or so above the coffee cups in my photo - false perspective picture, the bird was really suspended close up high to the ceiling and was one ton huuuuuge)

Sitcom Queen strikes yet again! At Eketahuna

Hi there
I knocked the bedside light off the table at my holiday home in Eketahuna.

The light was still working, but the shade and its fittings were irrepairably dented, plus the red-hot bulb was now 'joined' to the shade.  Oops.

Perhaps I could buy a replica shade and nobody would notice?  I'd seen this done lots of times in Movie of the Week on television where parents substituted replica mice or guinea pigs for accidentally killed household pets.  Easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy, that's what I would do, too.  No, not buy a guinea pig or a mouse... honestly, keep up with me, will you?

I seached-I-mean-truly-searched the whole of the Masterton  shopping area (25 minutes away) for a new  lampshade.  I went into high-grade stores, second-hand stores, The Warehouse, electrical places, charity shops, the information centre.  I spent the whole day in Masterton when I should have been swimming in the river in front of The Cottage.  Lots of lamps with shades intact to be had, but no single shades to be bought for love nor money.  And by 3 pm, I was truly willing to exchange love for a lampshade.  How cheap can a gal get?.

A sales assistant in one store told me to go to "Shady Lady" in Petone.

Great.  Petone was down by my home.  An hour and a half away.  No way was I going home to buy a lampshade and then back again to the Wairarapa district.

Finally, I found lampshades at Mitre 10.  The shade was smaller than I was searching for, but it would have to do.

I got back to The Cottage but had forgotten to buy a light bulb.  I drove 10 minutes to the Eketahuna Four-Square, then back again to The cottage to discover that the bulb was broken.  So, back I went to Eketahuna for a new bulb.

I couldn't get the darn lampshade onto the light fitting, try as I might.  After three hours, I gave up.  I slunk off home to Wellington, leaving behind one sheepish confession to a cottage owner, one shadeless bedside lamp, one battered and burnt shade, one new lampshade, one bulb with some lampshade material burnt into it, a spare light bulb, and, hopefully, enough money to buy a whole new bedside lamp.

Rats.

Above is the offending bedside lamp, photo taken pre-accident....

Just Returned from...wait for it!.... Eketahuna!!

Hi there.
I've just had four nights up the line in an Eketahuna cottage rental.  It's an hour and a half away from Wellington, 25 minutes past Masterton, 1 km off Highway No 2.

Don't laugh.  I know that everybody in NZ thinks of Eketahuna as, like, Timbuktoo or The back of Beyond, and folk smirk when Eketahuna is mentioned.  But I truly love The Cottage where I stay.  It's a couple of minutes drive from Mt Bruce Wildlife Sanctuary where if you're lucky you can see one of their two white kiwis, the only ones in the world.  I saw one and it looks like a couple of fluffy snowballs with spindly legs and a beak.

The Cottage is one bedroom - I'll show you interior photos some other time.  There is a swimming hole just in front of The Cottage and nothing surrounding the place but sheep/fields/trees/birds singing/river babbling.  Not one house to be seen.  Take note though, that it can get pretty windy.

I swam half a dozen times.  On Wednesday, I swam three times in one day.  Sheer bliss.  The Cottage details are on the Baches & Holiday Homes to Rent website, #573.

 

that's not a house to the left, it's a sort of sheep barn.

looking out of the side window

taken from the verandah looking down to river