Hey WOZ and everyone else, I live in CHCH, in St Martins. We are so lucky, I was at work in rolleston just out of chch and felt the 6.3, we thought it was near the original fault line, but it wasn't till a work mate rang her sister and to hear she was trapped in a building did it struck us that it was near the city and had caused massive damage.
My partner works in Westfield Riccarton Mall, which is our largest two storey shopping mall, greatful that she got out fine. I'm 29 years old and have never been so scared in my life! heading back into town and seeing smoke from the city centre rising on the horizon, driving for 3hr's the same distance on a normal day at the same time it would take 20min's!
As I said at the top I was lucky, we had no real damage to the house that we can see and only lost all our pantry contents. Floor speakers fell over and damaged the wall and cat disappeared for a few days. ( just had shake then! )
Friends and workmates lost family in friends, it is still very scary for us all. I know floods can be just as deadly, but you can see a flood come and go, earthquakes you can not!