A Better Day

Yesterday in Christchurch New Zealand, the earth rattled, split open and reminded us that despite every precaution; we humans are not immune to Mother Nature's force. Andy's parents live on the South Island of New Zealand during this part of the year, and we are grateful that they were not in Christchurch during the quake. They're doing fine and wanted to let us know as soon as they could--much sooner than we got word of the quake here in Portland--that they were doing okay.

We've visited Christchurch New Zealand a couple of times, in 1996 and a decade later in 2006 and calling it a city is a bit of a misnomer. While it's the largest city on the South Island and the second largest city in New Zealand, it's really more of a bucolic town, filled with gorgeous buildings inspired by England's gothic architecture, a meandering stream where the locals watch the tourist punt (to be guided in a boat kind of like a gondola in Venice) past the college, and fabulous gardens, in parks and seemingly in front of every home.

It's a sad day in New Zealand and we hope the death toll doesn't continue to rise. Fortunately the Kiwi's have the infrastructure and tenacity to ride out the aftermath of this tragedy, but we wanted to let our friends and relatives know we are thinking of them.

*The Photos*

I'm not sure, but I think the church in our picture was destroyed yesterday. Need to check on that. Also, our favorite store in Christchurch was this amazing drygoods place. Gotta wonder how it did after the quake.