Collective freak-out in Christchurch

My heart goes out to everyone in Christchurch, after the new aftershocks inflicted more damage on their lovely city. Another landmark that I recall from my visits has fallen down - the Timeball Station tower in Lyttleton.

In the reports on Stuff.co.nz, people interviewed commented as one that the shocks were "freaky".

One Pak 'n Save Wainoni worker said items had been thrown from the shelves and the floor was littered with food and broken glass. "It was pretty freaky. It felt like it was right under the supermarket," she said.

Christchurch east MP Aaron Gilmore said he was just getting out of his car when the quake hit and couldn't work out what was going on. "I could see the ground rise on the road, it was a bit freaky."

Greymouth pair Matt Adams and Crystal Graham-Hayes were shopping in Amazon when the magnitude-5.5 quake hit at 1pm. ''All the lights started shaking to the ground. I freaked out a little bit,'' Adams said.

Fire Service spokesman Dan Coward said there had been countless callouts to burst pipes, especially in the Sumner area where many locals were "freaked out".

So I would rate that at about 8.5 on the freak scale.

Breaking News: NZ accent is amusing

Dave at work has been listening to Australia's cricket tour of New Zealand streaming on the internet. The coverage has a terrific mix of clipped EnZed cricket pundits and gloriously bad local radio ads.

At the moment the Bleck Ceps have just broken the sheckles with a sex over mudwucket. "Just a fleck of the wrest and over she goes". Before the Australian atteck was "like a peck of wild dogs". The spunners are getting a lot of grup off the putch.

Meanwhile the new Mitsubish Triton truck has "up to six trucking airbags. And Triton has hardened the truck up with a bigger tray, and loads of trucking power". Also "you can demege yourself, end your blinds, wristling them un and out of their breckets."

Robin Morrison

I collected some postcards of Robin Morrison's photographs when I was in NZ in 1995. I have only just got around to looking him up on the net and finding some more of his work. I just found out he died in 1993. I love the top pic - the poles marching down the slope to the lake are so wonderful. The second pic is more typical of his work that I have seen - tiny shacks and caravans in very exposed settings.