The Herald catches up with people who have been in the news in the past year
Earthquake victim Angela Wasley reckons she could have made a pretty good politician.
When the 7.1-magnitude earthquake hit Canterbury in September and Ms Wasley's Christchurch neighbourhood was severely damaged - leaving her and her neighbours without the most basic services - she took a stand for the people.
A couple of weeks after the big jolt, she led a rally in her devastated cul-de-sac which drew about 100 desperate residents and local and national politicians. Suddenly the spotlight was on the plight of those who felt forgotten.
Agencies began pouring resources into the suburb of Avonside, where people were still living in uncertainty, without working toilets, showers, basins or washing machines, in cracked and damaged homes, with contaminated silt on the ground around them.
"I guess if I was 15 years younger, I would have headed straight into politics if I knew then what I know now," Ms Wasley told the Herald.
"I definitely found I have a bit of a knack [for it]."
"It was quite unexpected that we could effect some change and some decisions so quickly. I'm quite surprised at how productive it was."
Ms Wasley's own home, adjoining a Housing New Zealand property, is sunken and twisted. Her 7-year-old son won't live there because his bedroom is the worst damaged.
So other family members are living there instead. On December 10, the house finally got sewerage back.
Ms Wasley knows the damaged land in her cul-de-sac can be fixed but she is waiting for her insurers, and those for the adjoining property, to decide what will happen to her home. She hopes to have an answer by April.
"The earthquake has been probably one of the biggest things that has ever happened to me - as far as impacting on my life for a long period of time. It's recalculating everything over the next two to three years.
"[There is] the whole frustration, and not knowing where we are at, and not really knowing what to expect."
Ms Wasley is now part of a group called CanCERN (Canterbury Communities' Earthquake Recovery Network), helping people across the region affected by the quake.
Christmas and New Year had been "knocked out" because she needed to work right through to keep up her businesses as a seamstress and designer.
"Day-to-day life costs [have increased] for us, and unseen things have meant we have got to work harder at our businesses.
"It's been a lot of ups and downs, and a pretty crazy year. A lot of people I know are looking forward to [2011]."
