As many of you may know, Dave, Mike and myself are all from New Zealand originally so it was extremely bad news for us to hear that Christchurch was hit by another earthquake last week on Tuesday around lunchtime for us. First off we'd just like to say thanks to all of you who have sent us messages or given us a call to make sure all our families and friends were all ok, we really appreciate it. I was actually in Christchurch the week prior to the earthquake and walking around town, there were a large number of closed shops and empty lots where buildings had been demolished from the previous earthquakes but from viewing the footage on the news sites and from people putting up footage they had taken themselves from youtube, there is probably at least 20 times more damage this time round.
Family and Friends
Overall, our families weren't badly effected this time round. Dave's little brother is at Canterbury University studying engineering and was actually at a lecture during the earthquake but had no problems getting off campus and heading home. The Canterbury University campus has also been closed until further notice. My Dad lives and works in Christchurch and was in town during the earthquake, but managed to get everyone out of his office and get out of the CBD and head home.
GradConnection NZ
The GC NZ team are based out of Auckland and Wellington at the moment so were largely unaffected by the earthquake, however there are some graduate recruiters based there who have been impacted as it looks like the CBD in Christchurch is a closed off zone at the moment so most business activity based there has ground to a halt.
How to help
We've found the best way to donate here in Australia to help with the recovery effort over in Christchurch is via the Red Cross. You can make cash donations at their website here and it will be allocated to their overseas disaster relief appeal. Thanks again everyone for your messages and support.