It had just gone midnight. I felt something strange, the bed was moving, the doors were opening and closing and I was gently rocking back and forth. I don’t know what I thought I wasn’t quite sleeping but I wasn’t quite awake either. Was it a dream? A scene from poltergeist playing over in my head?

Next thing I felt Claire push me to wake me up and then I heard her raised voice say ‘stop the bed rocking’. It’s all still very dreamlike, it doesn’t make much sense. The whole house is creaking as the bed rocks ba ck and forward. Through Claire’s panic, I try and process what is going on. I can hear noises from outside, my first explanation was its a strong storm and the house is pitching in the storm. For a second this seemed to make sense before I discounted it.

I was too busy trying to work out what had gone on to be scared. Then it came to me. A few years prior when living in Elwood, I remember lying on the sofa one night and suddenly a shaking began. I instantly got up and the apartment felt like I was standing on one of those rope bridges across a river that bounce up and down. I remember jumping up and down to see if it felt worse. Now I know though this was an Earthquake.

Claire came to the same conclusion pretty fast. The tremor stopped and I wandered through the house to make sure everything was okay. On my return to bed, my thoughts turned to confirming the thought. A quick check of Twitter confirmed a 6.6 magnitude earthquake had struck the South Island with shocks felt all the way to Auckland.

This day was about goodbyes, we said goodbye to Claire’s sister who flies back to the U.S.. And to Claire’s parents who flew back to Auckland. Although that one was less final. We now drive back to Auckland over the next few days. And today was my day to get back behind the wheel. 
After dropping everyone at Palmerston North International airport we drove off towards New Plymouth or rather I did. First time in Claire’s dad’s car so I attempted to be very careful. Probably best I don’t tell you the story about how I managed to get it up to 140 kph at one point. He did say it doesn’t get much of a run out so in mind I was just testing its capability out. It passed by the way.

I extended our journey round what I thought was a coastal route but what turned out to be no-where near the coast route but instead the scenery was fields and torrential rain. We stopped briefly at a strawberry farm. About 4 hours later we arrived at our destination for the next few days, New Plymouth.

Always nice to get an upgrade and our spa room is certainly different from our last two nights accomodation and the king size bed will be more comfortable than the double we slept in.

The rain continued to pour down and we decided staying close to the hotel was the best idea. We picked a closeby restaurant to the hotel out of the lonely planet and as luck would have it, it was in the hotel. The Japanese meal went down well. We retired by 9pm, drifting into a deep sleep.

IJS