Kaikoura

On Sunday after church, we drove north of Kaikoura, for the first time since the 7.8 earthquake 14 months ago. We have gotten used to seeing the new look of the cliff faces to the south of Kaikoura, but to see the ones to the north was incredible. It was shocking and awe-inspiring, all over again, to see the devastation wrought in that minute or two of shaking. We have certainly learned a lot about geology and plate tectonics and natural disasters in the past year.

This is just past Ohau Point, where the worst slip happened during the quake. We used to go to this spot to watch baby seals play in a pool at the base of a waterfall here. According to someone who walked back in there soon after the quake, the waterfall still exists but the pool has been filled in. Here are before-and-after pictures of the same hillside.

This is approximately the place where three cows were stranded on top of an island of soil when the hillside around them fell away.The owners of this farm have lost a lot of their land, and because the Clarence River has changed course, if it floods they are in danger of losing their home and all their farm buildings.

The Clarence River in flood from rain in the High Country.

Here is a picture I took a number of  years ago of the bridge above.

We were fascinated to see the evidence of seafloor uplift along the coast. All the white rocks used to be permanently underwater; the old low-tide line used to be at the top of the white line.

This was a spot we were especially interested in. We saw pictures immediately after the quake of a fault line at Waipapa Bay, where the rock looked like it had been sliced with a knife and uplifted 6-8 meters. We believe this is the spot.

More evidence of the seabed uplifting.

A new road/bridge was built out over the seabed at Iron Gate. This bridge was completed after just 14 weeks! The road construction crews were putting in very long hours so the road could be opened before Christmas.

The waves were quite high on Sunday afternoon when we went through. It was getting near low tide then, but when we drove to Kaikoura in the morning it had been high tide, and there was seawater on the road in places from waves breaking at the edge of the cliff. During the next high tide, during the night, waves washed some of the 5-ton blocks of concrete from the seawalls completely across the road! As a result, the road was closed for the morning on Monday while the blocks were put back in place.

We had visitors from America last week, so on Sunday after church we took them to the Peninsula and walked around from the carpark at Point Kean (the north side) at sea level to South Bay. Before the earthquake, we had to time such a walk carefully to coincide with low tide—no more. The tide was at least halfway in, maybe more, when we finished our walk, and we were still high and dry.

Starting out from Point Kean—not too different from before. When you look closely, though, there is no life in the cracks, as there used to be, and the rocks are dry and dusty.

A seal, seagulls, and a shag.

Immature seagulls—we inadvertently walked through a nesting ground, although there were no eggs or tiny babies. The young are almost as big as their parents now.

Climbing this rock—irresistible!

Mr. Inventor with Little Miss on his shoulders, Mr. Imagination and Mr. Sweetie

There were a lot more rocks laying at the base of the cliffs than there were last time we did this walk. This one had split open with a very interesting pattern in it. Mr. Sweetie for scale!

This erect-crested penguin is visiting Kaikoura at the moment. Normally, only very small Little Blue Penguins live there. What a treat!

At the toilets at South Bay, the end of our walk. Mr. Inventor must have had sore feet! He walked all that way, over rocks of all shapes and sizes and sharpnesses, barefoot!

Mr. Diligence and Little Miss playing between the pillars.

On our second trip to Kaikoura after the earthquake, the second Sunday of January, we went to the Peninsula to see what it looked like at high tide.

Here is the same spot at high tide several years ago:

We saw this on the way to church. The earthquake caused the side of the road to slump down.

After leaving Kaikoura, as we started driving along the coast we saw this fresh slip, with the digger just starting to clean it up. We got through—but the road closed early that night. (Part of the highway to the south of Kaikoura, the part that was damaged the worst by the quake, is closed every night from 8pm till 6am the next morning.)

This spot looks like an entire section of a hill dropped down, creating a new gully.

The Oaro overbridge—the bridge with which the highway crosses over the railroad—suffered a lot of damage in the quake. We stopped to have a close look.

At both ends of the bridge, the road dropped about a meter. Apparently, the gravel used for fill under the ends jiggled away during the earthquake. Most of the bridges around dropped at both ends, but most only a few inches. This, of course, is unusable; you have to detour around this spot.