Last night we had one of the loudest and longest thunder storms I think I can ever remember with extremely bright lightening flashes preceding each loud roll of thunder. It must have gone on for over an hour but luckily stopped by bed time.
This morning we traipsed into town to do some laundry and pay a visit to the museum. Here there were plenty of items concerning the 1929 Murchison Earthquake which measured 7.8 on the Richter scale and killed 14 and 3 died of injuries later.
The Inangahua Earthquake in 1968 which measured 7.1. killed 2 and 1 died of injuries. Both of these small towns are very close to each other. If either of these disasters had occurred in a larger centre it would have been a different story, i.e. the recent Christchurch earthquakes. Lots of reading but insufficient time.
I also found an interesting item regarding the Nelson to Glenhope Railway. A totally isolated section of New Zealand railways in the country. It was started in 1876 and was threatened with closure in 1952 unless the annual freight tonnage could be increased to 25,000 tons. Unfortunately there were no plans to connect up to the mainline and it eventually closed in 1954 after much protesting.
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