Wellington

It’s unbroken coverage of the earthquake here and there is a widespread sadness that it is worse then first feared. The number lost is rising and it seems likely that many of the missing are also lost.

Some shops here in Wellington declare that their profits this week will be given to the Red Cross to help in Christchurch; Wellington residents have offered rooms in their homes for people whose homes can’t be occupied and want time out from Christchurch and newspapers and tv are cover-to-cover, 24/7 coverage.

Wellington will feel a particular empathy because it is waiting,and has been for some time, for what is believed to be an inevitable quake, its parliament building sitting just 400 metres from a fault line. Christchurch was not known before September to be at risk and hadn’t got itself mended and quake protected after the shock September quake and the Boxing Day aftershock. Tuesday’s shock is also still being described as an aftershock.

We left an idyllic stopping place near Levin by feeding our hosts’ alpacas and taking a tour of their blueberry farm and art studios.

The route to Wellington was easy and, after a cloudy start, the sun shone and it got very warm. The only room the Motel had left was actually best part of an Edwardian house – two bedrooms, kitchen and dining room.

Our visit to Wellington has been really good. We went to the Te Papa Museum on both our first and second days: it’s big, varied and holds some excellent exhibits that capture both the Maori and more recent New Zealand history. I know it didn’t come close but there is a room which apparently simulates a strength 6 earthquake. Unnerving.

We joined up with John and Coral again as we came off the cable car: we had been unknowingly following each other round the city during the day, it transpired. John drove us round the bay and we finished up at a delightful restaurant near where they were staying and enjoyed one of the best meals we’ve had all trip – and that’s saying something.

We visited the Parliament building on our second morning: what a difference to our own revered seat of government. We were made welcome, shown round for free, encouraged to picnic on the grass out front – the whole atmosphere was open and relaxed. I appreciate that the scale of government is very different but there is a constitutional right to submit an idea AND have that heard in person by select committee. Any Bill is advertised widely and anyone can submit comment: I know our own government’s business is publicised and we now have a Prime Minister’s website but it just seems so much more open. Despite all that and the apparently very low key security the ‘beehive’ as it’s known can withstand a nuclear bomb going off in the bay 500metres away and has been adapted so that it now floats on rubber cushions and is quake proof as a result.

We enjoyed a second visit to the Te Papa and wandered the city a bit. We cross to South Island tomorrow and check with the campervan provider that they are still okay for us to collect on Sunday. The Mayor of Christchurch, who has been brilliant throughout – articulate, reassuring and encouraging – tells us that there is no shortage of either fuel or food in Christchurch and we just need to get the van and move away. The test for us is this: first do we make things more difficult if we go? As the campervan is near the airport it seems not. Second, do we make things more difficult if we don’t? The message from Thailand, Brisbane and Port Douglas was unequivocal: they need business to help them recover. All that said, if we are advised not to go near then we will rethink things and let you know what we are doing instead. In the meantime, as we head that way, I think this Maori blessing, photographed in the Te Papa Museum, is apt:

Wish it for us.