Opinion: Quake a timely wake up call

PHOTO/FILE

WELL, that was a wake up call - quite literally.

While plenty reported sleeping right through it, plenty more in Rotorua were rudely jolted, or should that be rolled, awake by yesterday's earthquake.

It was one of the biggest earthquakes to hit the North Island in decades and certainly the biggest many of us will have felt.

I woke in confusion, my insomnia meditation recording mumbling away under the blankets momentarily distracting me from the fact I felt strangely sea sick and the bed appeared to be moving.

Making my way to the perceived safety of the bedroom door an almighty banging and crashing from the other end of the house had me wondering if I was being burgled, or the rats were back and on the rampage, before finally grasping what was happening. An earthquake.

Immediately I feared the worst - that the shake I was feeling was merely the edges of a catastrophic event elsewhere in the country. But a quick look at social media reassured me that New Zealand had been lucky this time.

This time.

As Stavros Michael tells us today, we should view the quake as a timely reminder that nowhere in this unpredictable country of ours is safe from quakes or other national disasters.

While Christchurch has borne the brunt in recent years, it has happened elsewhere in the past and it will happen again.

I have heard people say they would not live in Christchurch or Wellington because of the earthquake risk. Yet no where is immune, as much as we like to live happily in denial.

So I will sheepishly be among those sorting out an emergency preparedness kit this weekend. While hoping I never have to use it.