38
OUTDOORS
Aftershock Adventures with
South Pacific Helicopters
STORY BY SUSIE WILLIAMS |
SUSIE WILLIAMS & YOLANDA STEWART
Being shaken awake in the middle of the night on 14 November 2016
was like a nightmare to many of us living in the top of the South Island.
The noise, raw damage and trepidation it
created for days, weeks and months later
cannot be understated. Imagine how that
must have felt, must have sounded for
those at the centre of the earthquake as
their surrounds thundered down the sides
of mountains into the valleys below. The
echo of the valleys with avalanches of soil,
sand and rocks tumbling to the ground
must have been truly terrifying.
Heading out into the skies to get a
bird’s-eye view of how the landscape has
been reshaped from this earth shattering
experience, was simply amazing. From the
sky above, the magnitude of the November
2016 earthquakes can be realised far
better than from the ground. The scale of
work still being undertaken on the roads
down the coast and the sheer volume
of land that has been physically moved
down the valleys is amazing. It’s actually
jaw-dropping to see how much of the
ground has been lifted up from the sea
bed. Maybe this is Kaikoura’s answer to
surviving global warming!
Daniel and Monique Stevenson are