Earth and Wind

We decided to spend our last full weekend in New Zealand in Wellington, in part because there are things around here we wanted to see, and in part because we're getting sick of traveling.  Last weekend's adventures around Dunedin and the Otago Peninsula (including the best beach walk ever) left us exhausted and cranky.

Yesterday, we took the Dominon Post Ferry from Wellington out to Matiu/Somes Island in the middle of the Harbour.  It's a predator-free wildlife sanctuary managed by the Department of Conservation, home to feathered green rockets known as kakariki (dubbed red-crowned parakeets by pakeha naturalists).  It was sunny and a bit windy when we started out, but quickly turned cloudy and drizzly.  It was a fine adventure in spite of that, though Corwyn refused to wear her rain jacket.

As we rode the last ferry back to Wellington, the wind was starting to pick up.

By last night, Wellington was once again being treated to a howling gale, which is supposed to continue until mid-afternoon today.  (Despite the time-stamp on this post, I'm writing this at 10:30am on Saturday.)

I woke up around 2 o'clock this morning and was unable to get back to sleep, in part because of the roaring and whistling of the wind, in part because of the random slamming noises from outside.  (There's a shed for rubbish bins down below our rooms here, and the doors had not been secured.  I went out this morning to deal with them.)

After tossing and turning for a while, I went into the living room to read.  I sat down on the couch . . . and felt the couch jump.  I looked around: nothing else in the room seems to have moved; the clothes hanging on the hook were not swaying.  I shrugged it off, read for a bit, and went to bed.  I was able to get back to sleep, in spite of the howling, whistling, and slamming.

I checked online this morning and, sure enough, there was a magnitude 5.0 earthquake at 2:41am, centered about 40km from here, near Paraparaumu.

It was just another night in Wellington.