Viewing articles from June, 2011
A “lady” barrister in Sumner
17 Jun 2011
Gone are the days of being woken up by alarm, showering and making myself a flat white to take in the car on the way to work. The main worry is getting to the car before 7.20am to avoid the traffic jam of the Sumner/Redcliffs residents getting to work and schools. Then usually “skiving off” early (as the boys in chambers saw it I suspect) to collect children, watch netball or swimming, cook dinner, supervise homework etc.
Today a teaser of an aftershock woke me at half six. Children, husband and a 10 week old puppy were running round getting ready to go to school and work. No-one was banging on the bathroom door saying “hurry up” rather they were busy packing towels so they could shower at work or friends.
Then peace - just me and Lottie - the puppy we brought for the girls who had wanted one for so long and Jesse and Meg (our cats). So long that Isla, now 12, had managed to fool her new entrants’ class for some time that she actually had just got a dog. My office is in the Red zone and on a lean so I have been working at home since February 22 and will be for some time. Hence we no longer had the excuse of the poor puppy being left all by itself and how mean that would be!
Lottie and I then set to work – heating the water in the microwave (oven not working) so we can have a sponge bath (me first). Then doing the dishes (different water), making the beds - involving moving the mattresses in my study out into the hall with blankets on top (many Japanese do this every day). The girls now sleep in my study as in their rooms the walls have separated from the floors.
After all this, providing I do not have to clean up earthquake rubble or deal with engineers, contractors etc I get to do some paid work (i.e. the law). I have breaks to walk Lottie up the drive for some exercise and grass for essential dog business. Lottie’s carefully constructed dog enclosure is now full of glass from the shattering on Monday of the part of the fence that comprised the remaining glass around the pool trashed (munted) after the February earthquake. Sometimes I even get human company with a quick cup of tea with neighbours and earthquake chat - hows it going?, I heard Geotech are going to ...
Now to the paid work while Lottie lies on her mat beside my desk sleeps chews and keeps me company (cuter than my previous chambers colleagues but not as witty). I have a Supreme Court case in less than 2 weeks (initially due to be heard in February but postponed because of the second earthquake), sentencing submissions long overdue and a lot happening in a few other cases. A week before I felt I was only just getting back into my work after finally getting files from my office in early May and recovering from back surgery a week later. The fact my house is now unquestionably not repairable and the man in the hard hat, yellow vest with the geotechnical engineering degree told us that any more movement on the cliff we would be evacuated at short notice is a bit of a distraction.
At about 4pm I think about dinner and the children get home and we do the normal family evening things with a few more obstacles such as gaps, lumps and bumps in the floor, no water, draughts from the cracks, less heating and lots of telephone calls from friends and relatives (all offering help in many ways). Later in the evening we watch our TV that is on the floor (I do not think the insurance company want to get the bill for a third one!). My husband and I talk more because we are too shattered to do much else (i.e. we used to do work, bills etc ) at the end of the day. Sometimes sleep comes easily.
At certain points in time people in various parts of Christchurch are more or less affected than others by the series of earthquakes we have had. In September we were sitting pretty in Sumner and our land values went up. In February some were badly affected and others not. Like many we had no power and water for 2 weeks, the earthquake was scary and our house was damaged. Our neighbours were killed in the crushed bus and there were some very sad times where we supported their family appreciating the random and somewhat cruel natural world we all live in. Our house was probably reparable although we never got to the final stage. We were over the EQC cap and repairs were going to be about $800,000 but there was still one structural matter the engineers had not looked at. I had nearly finished compiling the contents claim.
We live on a cliff and while houses maybe 400 metres along the cliff were red stickered because of the land we had heard that they were more precarious than us because unlike them there was no ash layer (which is non-porous) in the rocks under us. In February it was a bit like “Apocalypse Now” with the helicopters over us monitoring the cracks in the cliff top (where there were GPS units placed). Lately we had heard that they had not moved significantly since February 22. The popular walking track in front of our house was closed with a knee high fence - no barrier to families walking the weekend. Every couple of days I went out to the cliff to see what had happened to the cracks.
What was unusual about the Monday was that my husband Jeremy was home. At about 12.30pm he took the dog to the neighbours and there was an earthquake –it seemed quite big and I got under the desk and when I emerged I looked out the window to the sea. At a point across the bay from us - Godley Head there was a lot of dust – a rock fall - interesting I thought. I took a photo.
Jeremy raced back and we wandered around the house thinking that most cracks had got bigger so the engineers would be able to look at those when they came back to look at the other structural wall. We texted the school the girls were fine and were in the assembly points. Our friend was going to get them if school was evacuated. We started to clean the pantry, the wine cellar (what was left), the books again ...I decided I have given up we would get nets for the shelves – I was beaten.
Neighbours (Eric and Raemon) called down to check on us. We sat down outside to have a chat and a flat white (from our lovely plumbed in Italian coffee machine). A helicopter went over we waved. I did say at one stage that where we were sitting might not be a good place if there was a bigger earthquake given the loose bricks directly above the deck (that spot was covered in bricks a bit later on).
The response of the majority was that this was no problem we had just had a reasonably big one so any aftershocks would only be smaller. That was of course what has happened over the last 9 months and we all fancied ourselves as earthquake experts.
So given the experts we were Eric, Jeremy and I decided that we should probably have a wander along the cliff top and see if the cracks had moved. Jeremy went to put the coffee cups away intending to follow and Eric and I set off through the gate off our property. As we walked out Eric said “you are still moving a bit tentatively with your back aren’t you” ( I had had back surgery 5 weeks earlier). My response was - its getting much better but I just did not want to “slip over”. We headed along the path beside the cliff to near where Eric’s old red stickered house was. After a while I said “You know, I really think that this land slopes more to the sea that it used to”. Eric had no chance to respond as literally all hell broke loose. I cannot recall whether it was noise or movement or Eric yelling at me that made me start running. All I remember is thinking I have got to get away from this cliff edge. But getting safely away from the cliff top area to the left involved getting over a line of Hebes and then a 6 foot high concrete wall to the right. Years ago I remember cursing the owners of this mega million dollar property who built a beautiful house and grounds but from the walking track all the walkers could see was a concrete block wall. But now let me kiss the Council workers that planned some flaxes and Hebes in front of that eyesore because we dived into those Hebes and hung on for our lives. Even if you wanted you could not stay on your feet, it would have been like trying to stand up on a roller coaster. The banging and slamming (shaking does not cut it here) seemed to go on for an eternity. I could feel myself being pulled away from the bushes like something was hanging onto my legs. When it was a bit less violent bit Eric jumped up and said “run” and we sprinted along the track as the earth cracked to our left and seemed to be sliding away. We got through the gate to my house and Eric said “Well we won’t be doing that again will we”.
I have seen the photos and now see that huge parts of the cliff had fallen off. From the upstairs in our house I can see that the cliff is much closer.
We met Jeremy who had just found and scooped up a very quiet puppy (who was hiding behind the house as most of her enclosure shattered around her). He and Raemon in the house at the time had thought we were goners until we emerged looking like as Jeremy said “bomb victims” covered in dust with the whites of our eyes prominent.
In the house the shaking was apparently more intense than February. This time even the big gas double oven launched itself across the kitchen as did the coffee machine! Nothing not bolted securely to the wall survived.
The Geonet website records the horizontal Peak Ground acceleration under that cliff top as being 212.7%g - three times the ground acceleration of town and Littleton for that earthquake. Thats why we felt like we were being pulled off the cliff and its not surprising a big part of our cliff fell off given that such acceleration can be amplified on the ridges of cliffs.
After having regrouped we all ran up the drive and joined the other Scarborough refugees for the next few hours. Our road was closed/blocked for some time so we could not go anywhere. Later in the afternoon we went back and started the clean up with the children when they were delivered safely home by a trusted friend (whose children I brought home after the February earthquake).
Some of our student helpers in June 2011 (with hard hats I gave them in case of further aftershocks and bricks falling!)
Jeremy an ex builder was happy that the house was safe (he knows every inch of that house) albeit irreparable.
Now we wait for our next move. We have been reassured that our house will not collapse but would simply slump further giving us time to get out in the event of another big quake. For buildings these days in Christchurch thats what is important. As to our land I am not that worried and want to rebuild (even without insurance) here in the long term. The helicopter has just gone over taking measurements and they will be back if it is dangerous. We have removed all irreplaceable things (photos, art) from the house in case we are evacuated and not allowed back in because of the land. I wear an apron at all times with the dog lead, my car keys and cell phone in the pocket. Everyone on the hill now parks their cars facing up the drive out of the garages. There is a rumour that all the houses on this part of the hill will be taken down and a reserve created but there are a lot of rumours in Christchurch.
What does the future hold for the “lady barrister” and her work lifestyle? I am not sure - Lottie and I are just taking one step at a time away from ridges on cliff tops.
Catherine Bibbey – Barrister and Council Member of the New Zealand Bar Association
Postscript – September 2011
Unfortunately as this article was published in the NZ Lawyer, and on the morning of the Supreme Court case I referred to, the new "arbiters" of public safety in Christchurch (the engineers) "joined the dots" (in this case connecting the veins of tension cracks on our cliff top) and decided our house and land were most unsafe. They identified major tension cracks around and under the house. Our land had become what Jerry Brownlee would call a "blindingly obvious" property that would not be able to be remediated. We were given some time to get stuff out but could no longer live there. The land and house were red stickered and much of my house was packed up as I appeared in the Supreme Court over the next three days. It was a distraction and the Supreme Court seemed a surreal environment on those 3 days.
After 6 weeks in a friend's mother's small townhouse we shifted to a house on the flat near the beach in a relatively undamaged area. As are family we are now settled but like most of Christchurch we are constantly reminded of what the city has lost but appreciate that we all need to not dwell on what happened (hard as that is) but be a positive part of the recovery process.
Lottie (sitting beside my desk in my new home office as I write this) is now 7 months old and nearly 30 kgs! and in reality the one good thing that the earthquakes have brought about for my family. The rest I could have done without!
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