One thing I learned from the most recent earthquake is that there can be a whole lot of aftershocks. We've had maybe 100 sizeable ones (3.2+) since the initial shock. There was a 5.1 this morning at 8am. I took my mom's advice and set a glass bowl filled with water on the mantle so I could watch the action.
There is some talk about "The Big One", which would be an earthquake resulting from a rupture in the Alpine Fault. It's an enormous fault that runs unbroken through the entire South Island. Apparently it's slipped regularly with great force... and it is quite overdue for another one. If that happens, I suppose I'll probably have to buy a new glass bowl and a new mantle to put it on.
Another weird thing about this earthquake event:
I went to pour myself a bowl of cereal today and the cereal in every box had been compressed to the bottom of the bag. All the little tremors have taken the air and space out of the cereal. I guess if you give a cereal box lots and lots of little shakes over a few days, it will form a brick at the bottom.
Strange, huh?
I had a couple days off so I went to Dunedin and vicinity. It's a city of about 120,000 and has a couple of big universities. I saw "Piranha 3-D" on the big screen, which was worth the money. Near town there are beaches with seals and sea lions and penguins. There was also some wealthy colonial politician's mansion atop a hill where the public can walk around. It had some really nice gardens, and I took some pictures of some various plants. Some of them are even native to NZ, I think. That's kind of a sore subject around here since we have so many invasive species, both plants and animals. The early colonizers brought lots of plants and animals to the island to make the place more like home. This didn't work out very well when they started multiplying and wiping out the native species. This explains why most people I know actively swerve to try to hit an Australian possum on the road. I have a nice sweater made from one, so I'm doing my part.
Sandfly Beach -- not because of the awful flies, but because it's windy and the sand flies
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