Poor Christchurch

Another series of serious aftershocks hit Christchurch early this afternoon, local time, the strongest with a magnitude of 6.0, all shallow and very close to the city. At least one building has collapsed (previously condemned, so it should have been empty), and there have a been a number of injuries from falling debris. Power is out to thousands of homes, and there is yet more liquefaction and flooding. The cumulative trauma to the residents must be awful. They are handling it with the usual tongue-in-cheek stoicism you'd expect.

And if anyone there decided they had simply had enough, they couldn't fly out. The volcanic ash plume from Puyehue volcano in Chile has grounded flights from most New Zealand and South East Australian airports. It's a long weekend here, so the airports are unusually busy, too. I felt most for the soldier returning from a year-long tour in Afghanistan, stranded in Melbourne and unable to get to Tassie and his family.

We're due to fly into NZ in a month, arriving in Queenstown on Tuesday 12 July, flying out of Christchurch on Wednesday 20 July. I've booked a motel on the western side of town which has suffered less damage (being built on river stones rather than estuary sand), and provides more direct access to the south (Queenstown, and Cashmere where my aunt lives).

I hope the planet has stopped burping and hiccupping by then, and neither volcanic ash nor quakes will affect (any of) us.