This blog was scheduled to appear at 4.35am. Exactly one week since the earth moved and life changed for many Cantabrians.

Last night, many people in Christchurch were letting their hair down a bit. We went to neighbours of our temporary hosts and had a few drinks. Sure, the quake was a topic of conversation but mostly it was anything else.

Newsmakers is Canterbury TV’s weekly politics programme. Normally we pollies go head to head. Yesterday host Mike Yardley tried to get me, Clayton Cosgrove and Nat MP Amy Adams to bite on whether the quake helping Mayor Bob Parker’s re-election bid? Should the elections be delayed? None of us was remotely interested. As Clayton said, this was the most bipartisan we would ever be. Each of us as electorate MPs are wholly focused on helping our constituents.

Tonight’s  caravan visit to my own suburb of Richmond illustrated the scale of that need.

A distraught woman was having  trouble coping with the damage to her rented home. After a few days off,  her boss told her that she was down the road. Another woman on a benefit who’d had some of her meagre food supplies damaged in the quake needed a food parcel. A shop owner whose business lies under rubble wanted to know if there was any compensation for loss of earnings. A woman was getting conflicting advice from Earthquake Commission and her insurance company on how to deal with damage to her home.

But let’s get this in scale. My caravan was parked outside the Richmond Working Men’s Club. It may not have been as busy as usual for a Friday night but it was still humming. The CBD cordon has been lifted though care is still needed around risky buildings and demolition sites. Most schools will reopen Monday (though pupils from Marian Hobbs’ old school, Avonside Girls may have to ‘bunk in’ with Shirley boys for a while as sewer problems still affect the Girls High School.)

We’ve been lucky enough to secure an apartment – moving in today – in a property market which is reinflating due to a ‘quake’ boost. Housing Corporation is hoovering up cheaper rentals to replace some of the 200+ state houses it’s lost to damage so it can re-house tenants. My electorate office is now up and running at a temporary new site – 232 Armagh St – but finding a permanent home may challenge budgets given more than 100 inner city building have been red-stickered.

So for many Cantabrians, life is beginning to return to some sense of normality, albeit the aftershocks keep presenting rude reminders of what began a week ago.

But for many others, week one is only the start.

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