Resilience remarkable

OPINION: Well, what a week - tortoise-like in pace and terrorised by nature. Most Canterbury people have adopted a survival-mode approach to the week, desperately awaiting the return of regular daily routines and the most basic semblance of normality.

What we generally take for granted is what we yearn for now the most - a sense of the familiar, a sense of the mundane. Within an hour of nature's shattering wake-up call last Saturday morning, I made my way through the eerie and defaced streets of Christchurch to the Newstalk ZB building.

As I drove along rubble- strewn Madras St, the pre-dawn darkness could not mask the trail of destruction the Saturday sun would starkly reveal.

At the radio station, it was a long trek up the stairwell to the seventh-floor studios. The dust- choked stairwell was littered with concrete and plaster debris. The interior walls were laced with fractures, and by Monday the building had been red-stickered.

Gazing out across the city centre at 6am on Saturday, it was reaffirming to tell listeners that our city's two great cathedrals were still standing strong, like beacons, in their floodlit glow. But as the day unfolded, the sheer immensity of the disaster came into sharper focus.

Local news media outlets have done an exemplary job keeping the community informed. The Press's online coverage has been exceptional. It's unfortunate that among the big television networks, a side- show scrap has broken out on Twitter, with Mike McRoberts publicly bagging TV3's slow response for being hammered in the ratings by Television New Zealand.

Good grief, how crass. I would have thought the rock stars of network TV could have put ratings ego games to one side, out of respect for the plight of homeless and heart-broken of Canterbury. Silly me.

On a similar note, Whale oil blogger Cameron Slater has cynically edited an interview I did with Jim Anderton on Friday night, falsely creating the impression that Anderton claimed only an earthquake could save Bob Parker's mayoralty. For the record, Anderton said no such thing.

The Mayor of Christchurch deserves high praise for leading the city's recovery with courage and clarity. Just what impact this natural disaster will have on the local body election remains to be seen.

In fact, I believe the dispatch of postal voting papers should be delayed until October.

The resilience of the human spirit is a remarkable thing. Adrenalin fuelled most people's initial response, before the shock and trauma set in.

Wave after wave of aftershocks have taken a huge toll on our state of mind. Even the most brave-hearted have been left brittle.

This has been a brutal, drawn-out home invasion for all, but we will prevail. Stay strong. Kia kaha.

- © Fairfax NZ News

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