Memorable Events
Can you remember your first day at school?
I can, and I will never forget it. Two hundred and sixty-five people were killed that day. It was the day of the Hawke’s Bay earthquake, New Zealand’s worst earthquake disaster.
Many people were buried in collapsed buildings and couldn’t be rescued. Fire swept through the city of Napier and many were burned alive. There was no water supply to quell the fire.
The school was Mahora Primary in Hastings, New Zealand and the date was, Tuesday, 3rd February 1931.
I remember the details vividly. I was standing on a tennis court when the quake struck. There was a staff meeting at school that day so we were all out in the playground.
The time was 10.47 and the first shake only lasted for two and a half minutes with a magnitude of 7.8. Most people think of it as one big shake but the quakes went on for several years. There were over 900 after-shakes. After a while, we took no notice of them and took them for granted.
When the first one occurred I was swept off my feet and grazed my legs. Children were crying and there was much confusion. I had a new trike so I headed home on it.
Trees and power lines were all down, so everyone traveled on the road. When I arrived at Fitzroy Avenue where we lived I found my anxious parents waiting for me.
My father had come home on his bike to see if we were safe. He was lucky to be alive as he worked under a big bell clock tower in the Hastings Post Office which had fallen outwards onto the road.
Once reassured we were ok, he headed straight back to work. He broke a window to get into the Post Office Savings Bank to rescue the cash and the ledgers. Shortly after his rescue mission, a further shake brought the roof down where he had been working.
Our house was in a mess and was uninhabitable. All our china and preserves were smashed on the floor. The brick chimneys were strewn throughout the rooms.
We were grateful to be alive. The first few nights we slept in a tent on a neighbor’s lawn, later we moved into our garage sleeping on a dirt floor.
Hastings’s main water supply had been cut at the Havelock North bridge but we were one of the lucky ones to have an artesian well in the garden.
One day our neighbor Mr. Wilkie, took us into the town on the back of one of his trucks to look at the damage. We bumped along the railway line as many of the roads were blocked and closed.
I remember seeing a burning building and the big bell from the broken clock tower in the middle of the road. On one two-story building, the wall had fallen out. There was a restaurant upstairs with all the tables covered with linen table cloths.
The women and children were evacuated but all the men were forced to stay to search for bodies, help clean up the rubble, and bury the dead. My father never mentioned what his duties were when we ultimately returned to Hastings.
My mother and I, and our dog Sandy were evacuated to Wellington. My mother’s sister Aunty Doll and her husband, Bert Hall, drove to Hastings in his Buick Roadster to rescue us and took us back to Wellington
It was a slow trip because of the procession of evacuees. We stopped at Woodville as there were stalls set up to attend to the injured. Volunteers served soup, hot tea, and buns.
After we left I found a cake of chocolate someone had slipped into my pocket. People were so kind.
We stayed for many months with a family friend, Aunty Lill Kellett. She was a kindly old lady who bought me some Tiger Tim comics and some annuals to read.
When we returned to Hastings our house was still not liveable, so we rented a beach cottage at Waimarama and we had a memorable reunion holiday, swimming, fishing, and boating.
It was the best part of a year before I had my second day at school.
I remember being taken into Napier one day and visiting Tin Town. A number of shops had been set up, out of the rubble area. They were built of corrugated iron. They had a wooden boardwalk and were selling basic rations and clothes.
Another Handful of Tips 