JUST REPLIED with thanks to you and Joe H in the thread, but realised you are in Christchurch NZ - hope you weren't affected by the recent quakes?
No probs, I have no issues chatting about and recommending L Series Freelanders
The "first" quake was the 7.1m one in Sept 2010 - that was the most scary - very close (about 20 miles away) and in the middle of the night so pitch black - that one had wardrobes toppling over onto the beds, TVs (and everything else) falling of chest of drawers onto beds, pictures banging against walls, falling and smashing off walls, cupboards emptying and smashing their contents over the floor etc. Shaking was immense, noise was collosal and the unknown with it being pitch black and not knowing what was falling on us (we thought it was the ceiling or roof) it was very scary. Other than a couple of broken windows though, the house was tidied up and back to normal after a few hours!. However, all our services (electric, water & sewage) were out for days (digging holes in the garden for number 2s).
The were continuous rumbles after that "first" quake, but the "second" major quake was Feb 2011, that was only a 6.2m but it was right under the city center and had some of the most rapid movements recorded in a quake. Didn't do anything to us, but totalled the old buildings in the city center and 180 people were killed. The city is still only about 20% rebuilt after that quake. Luckily our favourite pubs remained open or were reopened pretty quickly, but all the clubs were totalled.
The recent "third" quake was the biggest at 7.4m but was a bit further away from us here in the city. The shaking here went on for quite a while and there was a lot of movement (doors were swinging from closed to wide open), but because it was a bit further away the shaking was "soft" and not damaging. Mrs Grumpy and me were actually down south when it hit, it was the kids ringing at 1AM that let us know the ground was moving again
To be honest, they do cause agro - we're still missing a proper city center from the 2011 quake and the latest one has disabled the roading system going north which will take a long time to fix - but houses here are built to withstand quakes - so I don't worry about them. If Wellington gets a "big one" though (which will 100% happen sooner rather than later) there will be all sorts of trouble as there's a lot of old buildings there, and a lot of high rise buildings as well, built right on fault lines - its a place most stupid to build a city!
To say I "welcome" the quakes is not the right word! However, they (and other seismic activity) has created an awesome country. The mountains around us mean we have numerous ski fields within easy reach, fantastic rivers, superb tramping tracks etc etc. The town most affected by the recent quake, Kaikoura (2 hours from here), is a coastal town with a backdrop of 2,000m high mountains and trenches between plates off shore - 1km off shore the sea is 1km deep - whales migrate and feed down these trenches and its a magnet for other sea mammals such as dolphin and seals - its an awesomely inspirational place to be. We have thermal hot pools close to Chch and "up north" there are the geysers and all sorts of other thermal activity - there are lakes where you can catch a trout (if your not me!) then bury it in the gravel to cook it
So, yeh, we are affected by quakes - occasionally negatively - but always in the many wonderful ways
