American Kitefliers Association

Anyone who read the regional reports in the latest issue of Kiting and saw the small piece about me and “the Christchurch earthquake” may have been confused, especially if they know anything about Christchurch.  Excessive abbreviation and creative paraphrasing seems to have taken away any sense from the item.

Christchurch, New Zealand, has in fact had over 8,000 earthquakes in the past 12 months, starting with a huge 7.1 on the Richter scale on September 4, 2010.  Four of the ensuing quakes have been particularly damaging, including one on February 22 this year which killed nearly 200 people.  Many thousands of homes and other buildings have been lost.  The quakes still go on, although the last highly damaging one was on June 13, very powerful at 6.3 and very close to the city centre.

That quake happened when I was flying on the beach, about three kilometres from the epicentre.  The whole beach heaved up, and I was thrown to the ground and unable to get up until the motion finished.  Luckily I kept hold of the line and didn’t lose my kite!  It is that kite that I took a photo of four minutes after the quake; I was not “back in the sky” four minutes after the quake, I was flying when it happened.  And the suggestion that it somehow reassures that New Zealand has safe areas is absurd, since there were few places less safe than where I was at the time.

These quakes are centred in and around Christchurch, and the rest of the country is unaffected.  The mention of someone from Auckland commenting on the quakes is strange, since that city is nearly 800 kilometres away on a different island.

However, for anyone considering a visit to New Zealand, please don’t be put off by the shakiness of my city.  The rest of the country is fine, and even here you are unlikely to have a problem.  Despite having my car shaken to pieces on earthquake-damaged roads, I still drive to the beach almost every day and fly as many kites as I can to show my personal defiance of what nature has done, and is doing, to this area.  Life must go on, and kite-flying is a big part of that for me.  And at the age of 71 next month I can’t afford to lose any time!

Jim Nicholls