NZ: a country unlikely to make the world headlines

Except for lately.

I should technically be in NZ right now - about 1.5months into my backpacking adventure. If I had left at the beginning of September, as originally thought before the extension of my current work contract - I would have experienced the three following events (well, probably a lot more...but these have made headlines!)

1. September 26th, 2007. Mt. Ruapehu erupts without warning, luckily only injuring one person. (A Natioanl Geographic video of the event can be found here.)


2. October 15th, 2007. A large anti-terror raid is undertaken in different cities throughout New Zealand. This will be something that I will follow up with, as more information becomes available. Basically, at the moment, the information states that a multiple city police raid has taken place, and some arrests have been made under the arms act - but these arrests may be upgraded, and NZ police may use the Suppression of Terrorism Act for the first time.

Since I don't know much more than what has been published by different news casts, please click to some of the following links to read some initial information about this widespread raid.
- The Sydney Morning Herald
- BBC
- Stuff.co.nz
- SBS World News Australia

It's quite a scary situation - should the intention behing those arrested honestly be a full scale attack on various cities in NZ. Those targeted in the arrests are the Maori sovereignty and environmental activists. There is police surveilance footage of "military-style training exercise with live ammunition being fired in mountainous terrain."

I was half asleep on the couch when I saw the tail end of a news clip on BBC last night. But I woke up quick enough when I began to hear more about it.

I'm three days away from buying my ticket to NZ. And now I'm in a lull about the safety of what once was a very quiet country.


3. October 16th, 2007. A series of two 6.0 and greater earthquakes roll through the south island.

Bloomberg.com reports:

"New Zealand's South Island Struck by Two Earthquakes (Update3)
By Aaron Sheldrick and Bryan Lysaght

Oct. 16 (Bloomberg) -- New Zealand's South Island was hit by two earthquakes of magnitude 6 or greater, the U.S. Geological Survey said on its Web site. There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage.

A magnitude-6 quake struck 95 kilometers (59 miles) west- northwest of Queenstown at 10:28 a.m. local time today at a depth of 39 kilometers, the USGS said. Another quake, of magnitude 6.8, struck about nine hours earlier, 103 kilometers west-northwest of Queenstown. That quake was 25 kilometers deep.

There were no reports of casualties or damage, a Queenstown police sapokesman said by telephone after the first quake.

New Zealand lies in a zone where the Indo-Australian and Pacific tectonic plates meet. Quakes occur as the plates push together and tremors of magnitude 5 and higher can cause damage depending on their depth.

There was no tsunami threat to coastlines along the Pacific Ocean, the U.S. government's Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said on its Web site after the bigger tremor. It added that local tsunami were possible within a few hundred kilometers of the quake. There were no reports of any.

A magnitude-7.4 quake struck near New Zealand's Auckland Islands on Sept. 30. The country has as many as 15,000 earthquakes a year and the biggest since instrumental recording began was a magnitude-7.8 temblor in 1931 in Hawke's Bay, according to the USGS Web site. "



Yes - did you see that. NZ is hit with approx FIFTEEN THOUSAND earthquakes every year. And they don't seem to all be such baby tremors.


I'm praying for this country. More so for peace within the people of the land.