Return

I arrived back in Christchurch on Monday night with Chris and Jess in tow and put them on a plane for the US on Tuesday morning. We had a good 4.2 aftershock Monday night. Thankfully Roberto's wife arrived Wednesday and on Friday, Deb, Roberto and I headed to Akaroa and then to Lyttelton to check out the port city and see if the "Loons" bar survived. The old buildings lost all their facades and it is true that historic buildings in Lyttelton are destroyed. I'll post pictures if we ever return to full bandwidth. The port was cranking! Very little damage to the modern facilities - container ships were being loaded. The tunnel is open.

The situation at Canterbury and in Christchurch has deteriorated. Christchurch City Centre remains cordoned off and will not be accessible for months. This city is fighting for it's existence. The university downgraded the inspections on most of the buildings and the campus re-start will be significantly delayed over the previous estimates. For example, the Civil Eng building lost some ceiling tiles and the administration wants to make sure that no further tiles will come down in any aftershocks. They are inspecting everything in a detailed manner. The Chancellor gave the go ahead to use any resources necessary to get programs going again - as long as it is not on the UC campus. It may be weeks or months before we are back there again.

Milo returned Saturday and Mandy came back Saturday night. On Sunday we had a delightful meeting with Shayne and his family and over the weekend hatched plans to start the Mechanical Engineering program at a sports centre in Mandeville! This facility is about a half hour north of ChCh and will require tents and buses and all manner of ad hoc arrangements to get on-line. The department faculty and staff have kicked in and we will have internet and classes are scheduled on that site starting March 14. Never underestimate the resourcefulness of Kiwi's and Engineers!

This is the new campus fo Mechanical Engineering

first staff meeting at the "new campus" to schedule classes and assign duties to get if "up and running."