earthquake – MikeHawkey.com

On February 22nd 2011 tragedy hit New Zealand with the earthquake that struck Christchurch. During the earthquake, part of the Sanitarium factory was damaged and production of Marmite ceased. Roll forward to March 2012 and the company announced their own stocks of Marmite had all but run out. Marmageddon was declared. Online auction site TradeMe featured numerous jars, both new and used selling for many many times the retail price as Kiwi’s hunted high and low to store supplies of their much loved spread. Also made overseas (UK), the taste was different, and not what we knew. The largest competitor, Australian produced Vegemite became the only viable option for many,

News and whispers spread across the land that the factory was being rebuilt. Delays occurred, but then finally, earlier this week, it was announced that Marmite would be back for sale in the stores on Thursday 20th March 2013. An initial batch of 500,000 Jars was released to the public, with the reassurance the factory was sound, and request not to stock up – so all New Zealanders would have the opportunity to sample the loved, lost, and reborn spread. Marmageddon was over!

Whilst some buyers flocked to supermarkets at midnight, I waited until morning (hurriedly on my way to work). I have to admit, I am a fan, and was quite pleased to see its return!

After what seemed like (and can’t be far off) all of 2013 to date being sun, and then drought, Auckland finally got its first reasonable drop of rain today. Unfortunately for the Volunteers at the Devonport Fire Station, it occurred on our open day – but all went well all the same.

Some of our other big cities in the country have a total outdoor water ban at the moment, so planning ahead, and doing my bit to conserve water, I laid out buckets in the ‘common drip areas’ around the property to collect the rainfall to use later in the week.

Just after the rain calmed, we were hit by a relatively rare, for Auckland, earthquake! a 4.0 on the scale and 5km deep, it was felt widely around the area, with mixed reactions from those I listened to calling in on the radio. One lady thought the washing machine was on, another thought the building was going to fall over…just image somewhere in the middle, lower it a bit, and you are about right.

Image wise for today – shot on the Nex with 210mm lens. Using Gimp I added contrast and resized.

Today’s image is a bit of a fun, sad and tragic reflection on a number of events – some being trivial and others quite the opposite. For readers who do not know of Marmite – it is a yeast spread, often loved or hated. Also made in England and South Africa, ‘Sanitarium Marmite‘ is a New Zealand only product that sadly halted production with the tragic Christchurch earthquakes (the November quake being responsible for Marmites halt).

I took this image not long after the halt to document my supplies, which tragically (on a trivial level) have now run out – I’m in the ‘love it’ camp. On a more serious level, I was reminded of this when at a presentation in the conference I attended over the last few days. Watching a video filmed a few weeks ago, almost two years on the city is slowly recovering, but is still in a state of disrepair. Some suburbs are still using portable toilets, roads are still broken up, the central city still half closed, and plans for repair moving, but not at the pace all would like. Residents still suffer regular aftershocks as they wait to find out if their homes can be repaired or are written off. Unfortunately, with no ‘new’ news it falls from our vision via the media. I was quite shocked to see the troubles some residents face two years on.

Image wise, I took it on my Samsung Galaxy 3 (not S3) using vignette and upped a contrast a little in Gimp.

Aroha Christchurch Aroha being the Maori word translating to much love)

Tag: earthquake

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