So it's coming up to 9PM, and I'm at home, searching Renderosity for any freebies that I may have missed in the past year. My sister Kayleigh is at work and should be closing up shop about now after a busy Xmas season's day trading. My mind is on the $360-odd I've spent this morning on stocking up the larder. One of our four six-week-old kittens is curled up on my lap, with it's three siblings playing tag around my toes and threatening the PC cables around my desk.

Without warning, my desk starts to rock. It's a quake. Quite common in New Zealand, but it's the first one I've felt in more than 18 months being back in the country after living in Australia for the better part of a decade. Strange to say, it's one of the things I've... well, not exactly missed, but have noted the absense of. The usual routine is a few seconds of rocking, with the rattling of crockery and maybe a little swaying of furniture, followed by silence and a nervous giggle. Or if you are trying to be macho, a nonchalant comment guessing the magnitute.

This quake, however, decides very early not to follow routine. Within a few seconds, the rocking becomes violent, insistent shaking and things become very interesting, very quickly. The kitten on my lap, ironically called Turtle, jumps to the floor and rockets under my bed. The other kittens scatter. The house sounds like God is tapping it with a hammer, trying to find the weak points. I'm sitting in a comfy armchair, and I'm not too concerned about my personal safety and I know better than to get up and run. But what does concern me is that the quake could shred my PC and the data on it. I've already hit the off button... fun though it is to try and keep it pressed for the few seconds it takes for XP to notice and start shutting things down. My main concern is my external 360Gb Seagate drive. It's already advancing along the desk noticably, and there is no time to indulge in a nice clean shutdown, so holding my breath and muttering a curse I reach behind it and kill the power. The quake is getting real strong now, XP is taking it's time shutting down, and I'm seriously worried that the HDD on my PC could suffer a physical head-crash with all this jolting, so with another muttered curse I just rip the power cord right out of the wall socket. The monitor is also moving along the desk... towards me and my lap... so I hold onto it as best I can.

Then the power goes out. And it's almost dusk. A fine time to be stuck in a rocking, jolting, crashing house. But even as I think that, the quake subsides... almost. Instead of jolts there is a long, powerful swaying like being at sea in a heavy swell which seems to go on forever. By now I'm out of my chair and under the doorframe, waiting to see if this is just a beginning to something truely nasty. But no, the quake stops.

Silence.

Three kittens come out from under the bed. Their mother runs in from outside looking startled.

In my wardrobe is a box with candles and a lighter and a torch, so I light candles, and then go outside. The neighbours have the same thought, and we exchange rueful glances. There is no sign of power any direction we look. What there is, is a lot of activity. Cars start racing down the roads, sirens wailling from fire, police and ambulance vehicles, and the streets look like an outdoor market as everyone comes outside to collect themselves.

It's weird to think that I was so worried about my PC that I didn't have time to be even slightly scared. But my sister is due home about now, and I'm worried that I can't get her on my land-line, or my cell phone. She is from Australia, and has never been in an earthquake before. I keep trying to call, but the lines are either busy or overloaded.

I hear more sirens, some much closer now, and a couple of times ambulances rush past our house.

Finally Kayleigh is home, along with our other flat-mate, Ruben. And of course the first thing she does is thump me and tell me how much she was worried about my safety. Sheesh. All is well, until she goes into her sleep-out, and finds her 160 litre fish tank shattered, the carpet soaked, the fish laying lifeless on the floor. It's all too much, and she breaks down and Ruben and I console her. Without power, we can do little in the dark, so we go inside the house and start hunting for all the cats and kittens we can find. The three adult cats are accounted for, and three of the kittens. But Turtle is nowehere to be found - until we look way, way under my bed - where she has fallen asleep...

I'm worried about my parents, who live a couple of blocks away, so I walk quickly over there. As I do, it hits me exactly how big this quake must be - already radio reports that the quake was 6.8 in magnitude and centered only 40K from the city.

My parents turn out to be ok - nothing broken at all, and while I'm there, the power is restored. Local radio is on the job, broadcasting Civil Defence information and taking calls from people around the district with tales of the quake to tell. Already a picture is forming - there are some buildings damaged or collapsed, but very few casualties, and those minor at that.

I walk back home, and find that the power is back on there as well. Ruben and Kayleigh are calling around, contacting friends and bosses. It's been about an hour since the quake hit, and Kayleigh finally decides to brave looking at her room and seeing the full amount of the damage.

We go in - and it's heart-breaking. Debris from the tank is scattered everywhere. Then Ruben notices one of the fish moving slightly. Scarcely able to believe it, we check, and sure enough, it is still alive. I rush to the bathroom and fill the basin up and put water-ager into it to condition it for any fish, take a bowl of water back and put the fish in... and it starts swimming! We find another, and another, and then the last two goldfish. One of the fish is dead, crushed by something in the impact. Yet the others are all alive - a full hour after the quake had smashed their tank! We even find the little sucker-fish and one of the snails alive as well. I call my father, who comes round with a big bucket and we transfer them from the basin to that...

Apart from the fish tank, the total damage to our house is one broken plate (ironic, because it was already on the floor, and something fell on it), one slighty bent book-shelf, a vacuum cleaner that was soaked when the fish-tank burst, and... that's it. Only a couple of DVDs fell off the mantleshelf where they are piled 20-high, and nothing fell out of the cupboards, pantries or other shelves.

It's been an interesting night.

GrouchoC.