It took a while for the crane operators to free everyone from the 9th floor and make their way up to the 17th floor where we were waiting.
When the basket arrived at our floor, I was standing on the balcony with Peter, one of the Partners at Parry Field. It was very surreal to be speaking face to face again with someone from outside the building.
I went inside to make room so that the women could climb into the basket. My colleague Joseph leaned over to help pull the basket in against the balcony. He was later embarrassed because, once the rescue workers were ready, they pulled him into the basket before anyone else. We quickly learned that the rescue was being filmed and beamed around the world. Joseph was dismayed to think that millions of people around the world would think he forced his way into the basket before anyone else.
Because he hadn’t been expecting to be rescued yet, Joseph had left his bag inside the building. He asked me to grab it for him, so I passed to him over the side of the basket, while others were also busy climbing into the basket.
I waited inside, but one of my colleagues yelled out and said to me that there was still room in the basket, so I should climb in. The basket took about 13 of us at a time, so they rescued us in two groups.
The trip to the ground was surprisingly quick and smooth. It felt as comfortable as an ordinary lift ride. On my way down, I received a text message from my brother in Sydney to say that he was watching our rescue on TV.
When we reached the ground, I said thank you to the rescue workers and a police officer who was waiting nearby, and stepped out onto ‘solid’ ground. There was another police officer nearby, who collected all our names, employers’ names and contact details.
I phoned Louise to tell her that we had been rescued. She told me that she knew all about it because she had just watched the rescue on TV.
The second basket load of people arrived fairly quickly, including a few more of my colleagues. We set out together to walk out of the CBD. I told Louise that I would walk North, and call her again in a few minutes to try to figure out where she could pick me up from.
By this stage, the CBD was virtually deserted apart from relief workers and police. There were signs of devastation everywhere. Armagh Street looked badly damaged by the Law Courts. There was liquefied silt throughout Victoria Square and spilling out onto Colombo Street. Back south on Colombo Street beyond our building the damage was very bad.
We walked passed Cambridge Terrace, and saw the ongoing efforts at the PGC building. I was walking with one of my colleagues, and mentioned that I knew Perpetual were based in that building. One of our friends had worked for Perpetual, but had taken up a new position the week before the earthquake (we later learned that he had been in the PGC building that day, but left about 30 minutes before the earthquake). My colleague was very worried because another close friend of his also worked for Perpetual.
We reached Kilmore Street, and a Police officer told us to turn left onto Kilmore Street because the next block on Colombo Street was unsafe. We walked down Kilmore Street passed the Crowne Plaza hotel, which also looked badly damaged. Then we turned onto Durham Street and walked north again. At 5pm on a Tuesday evening, we walked down the middle of the roadway on Durham Street – ordinarily one of the busiest streets in Christchurch. We passed a few residents standing by their gates, looking dazed. There seemed to be a few sightseers riding through the CBD on bicycles.
After about 25 minutes of walking, I met up with Louise on Rutland Street. We hugged, and a sense of relief began to filter through. She had left the children with our friends, so we headed in the direction of their house. Near the CBD the roads were badly buckled, but the further out we went the better they got.
We arrived at our friends house, and the children came running out to hug me. They had watched the rescue on TV too, so had been waiting for me to arrive home. We went inside, and sat down to eat some food our friends had prepared. Their house was basically undamaged, and they had electricity and running water. The emotion and stress levels were higher than usual, but otherwise it almost seemed like any other evening. It seemed strange that life could seem so normal just a few kilometres away from what had been a most abnormal afternoon.
The next day, we began to learn of friends and acquaintances who had been killed in the earthquake. Thankfully, none of our close friends had been killed or even seriously injured, but a number of my colleagues and friends had lost friends or family.
