I've just heard from a friend who lives near the Cashmere hills, on the outskirts of the city. She says:
"We survived but the house has lots of internal cracks and 11 windows are cracked. The hardest thing has been the lack of sleep. You can't help waking up when there's an aftershock but it's not so easy to go back to sleep. Do you remember the clay pits down on Centaurus where your ancestor met his death? The two Victorian brick houses next to them are cordoned off and have a red sticker. It would be a shame if they have to be knocked down. One of the blocks of brick shops in Sydenham that keeps appearing on TV contains Penny Lane Records. A few days before the quake we bought a record of Joan Baez and Folk Concert Down Under with Rod McKinnon, Val Murphy, Don Thoms et al. Also a Corries CD. I don't know if they have been able to rescue their stock, but it looks like the building will be coming down.
What have we learnt from the earthquake? That there is no such thing as "safe as houses" and never keep a hundred empty jam jars in a top cupboard. We needed a shovel to pick up the pieces.
I was booked to go to Australia on the 6th Sept, but I just couldn't go and leave the family, so I cancelled."

Hang in there guys!
Robyn