Will trade big rock for clean slate

Betty McGrail, 80, says residents are getting tired of waiting for insurance assessors to visit their homes. Photo / Sarah Ivey

It is almost two months since the Christchurch earthquake rocked her world, but 80-year-old Betty McGrail still has a boulder in her living room to remind her of it.

After fleeing her Heathcote Valley home when the February 22 quake hit and rocks began hurtling down from the Port Hills, the lively pensioner returned to find the two-tonne boulder had smashed through the wall of her home and partially embedded itself in the floor, next to her favourite chair.

"It's waiting there for the insurance people to come now," Mrs McGrail told the Herald.

"I think everyone's getting a bit sick now of things not getting done. They're busy [repairing] the roads - there's plenty of work going on there - but there's not much going on in the houses."

Aside from the resident boulder and the hole in the wall, most of her home contents were undamaged. However the future of her house of 45 years is in doubt. The chimney came down, and it appeared the house had shifted off its foundations in the quake.

Mrs McGrail is able to go in and get clothing and essentials, but is now staying with her son. "I think they are frightened more boulders will come down. But it's pretty stable now, I think."

Although sick of the sight of the uninvited tenant, Mrs McGrail said: "If I get a new house, I might think it's a nice rock."

She doesn't plan to follow in the footsteps of Christchurch man Phil Johnson, who managed to sell a boulder that crashed into his home when the quake hit for $50,000.

There might be a place for her boulder in the garden of a new property, Mrs McGrail said. There were plenty of ideas about how to get the boulder out of the house - such as lifting off the roof - but none of the plans could be put into action yet.