Australia & NZ (Cruise) -- Nov 2013

This is an unofficial memorial built by a few private indivduals (or perhaps only one). There is one empty chair here for each of the approximatley 185 people who died in the quake (about 125 of them in one multi-floor building that pancaked -- I heard the exact numbers but don't remember them). No one was killed in the first of the two serious earthquakes (that one apparently most severly affected a suburban area where the buildings were mostly only one floor high). The first strong quake largely involved soil liquifaction. The second one involved severe up and down shaking. (IMG_5033.SX40.JPG)