Things went Pear-shaped

It was Friday afternoon, all our caravans were parked up for the weekend rally, but one of our members was yet to arrive.  Ever the dutiful husband, Selwyn climbed into his car and drove off to collect Kath from her place of work in Wellington city. The trip shouldn’t have taken too long, about 45 minutes or so but…….

Selwyn was driving along quietly, minding his own business, when the car started acting funny.  “Must be a puncture”, he thought, and pulled over to the side of the road.  Strangely enough, several other cars had done the same.  Selwyn checked his tyres, and sure enough, one was flat.  The other drivers who had also pulled over were walking around checking their cars too, peering underneath, and generally trying to make sense of what had just happened.  It was 2.31pm and the big 6.6 earthquake had just occurred.  Not that they probably knew that at the time.

Changing the flattie for the spare – one of those light “Space Saver” tyres, Selwyn slowly drove on to buy a new tyre.  The ground movement had shaken the car so much that the tyre had been moved off the rim and deflated, Selwyn found out later.

Meanwhile, Kath had problems of her own.  After the big shake, workers were pouring out of office buildings into the streets and trying to make their way home.  But the trains weren’t running until all the tracks could be checked for damage.  Even with a new tyre on the car, Selwyn could not drive into the city as the streets were grid-locked with traffic going nowhere.  Everything had gone pear shaped! 

Police stopped traffic outside the Wellington train station to get drivers with empty seats in their vehicles to pick up stranded passengers, after drivers started the initiative of coming to the station to offer rides.  Police who were at the station saw the gesture and stepped in to organise the situation.  Kath finally got a ride up to Kapiti Coast in a car full of strangers all happy to be heading home and met up with Selwyn.  Thank goodness for cell phones so they were able to keep in communication.  They finally arrived safely back at camp, each with quite a tale to tell.

New Zealand Rail reported that 11 commuter trains were stuck between platforms for up to an hour after the earthquake, and thousands of commuters were left stranded in Wellington by the cancelled train services.  Buses started to arrive at the station shortly before 5pm and those commuters who hadn’t found lifts were finally on their way home.  But the mass exodus from the city caused traffic chaos in the suburbs as drivers tried to avoid the motorway and get home via back streets. It was going to be a long night for some travellers.  Although there have been a number of incidents involving broken glass in the city, there were no reports of any casualties.  What a day, it could have been so much worse.

   Selwyn’s new tyre