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2010s Coping Featured Love and Marriage Marfan Medical Travel Visually Impaired

The Wellington Earthquake

By Greg

Business Class Travel – It’s Not For Everyone

In November 2016 my then employer, Advocare Inc, gave me the opportunity to go to a mediation conference in Wellington, New Zealand.

Travel was becoming increasingly difficult for Trenna. Her eyesight was very bad and her pain management was not going well. We knew that the long flight from Perth in Western Australia to Auckland and then down to Wellington would take its toll.

On the other hand it really wasn’t feasible for Trenna to stay at home unassisted – it was just too hard. Plus, she had loved the South Island of New Zealand and wanted to see the North.

My work would pay for me to fly economy class, but we decided to pay our own way for Business class for the two of us. We booked Qantas flights there and Air New Zealand return (it was slightly cheaper that way).

As her diary entry of 11 November 2016 says “Greg doing the actual packing, me doing the advice.”

Our thinking was that the better conditions at the front of the plane would be more comfortable for her.

Alas! That was not to be the case.

Trenna was great at packing, but by late 2016 it was getting physically hard for her to do. I took over most of it, but that in itself raised anxiety. Partly I am sure as it meant a further diminution of her autonomy, and partly because I’m just not as good at it!

As her diary entry of 11 November 2016 says “Greg doing the actual packing, me doing the advice.”

As we were preparing for takeoff I was quite excited by the very nice Business Class conditions and anticipation of air travel, which I usually enjoy.

When I looked over to Trenna’s “pod” I saw she had tears in her eyes. At first I thought “oh! She’s happy! She is thinking that overseas travel is possible if we just pay a bit more for our seats”.

Quickly I realised that they were NOT tears of joy. They were of utter frustration and despair.

I risked a polite, Business Class style bollocking from the flight attendant, undid my seat belt and scurried over to see my wife. Her immediate concern was that she couldn’t find all of her belt in the expanse of her in-flight living room, and if she did she knew she wouldn’t be able to see well enough to fasten it properly.

On top of this she had already tried to use the large touch screen entertainment system and find the seat comfort controls. She couldn’t work any of that out, because she couldn’t see clearly enough.

Touch screens are good for those who can see – dynamic buttons and sliders that change colour according to whether they are active or not. There are lots of visual cues ……..

If you can’t see clearly, and if there are no tactile clues – touch screen buttons don’t feel different to any other piece of glass – they are useless.

Worse than that, they can make YOU feel useless.

Trenna was really despairing. I don’t doubt she was also thinking of the thousands of extra dollars we had spent because of her (as she would see it – I was more than happy to try business class!)

The flight attendant did turn up, but didn’t tell me off. She had been informed that Trenna was visually impaired and she provided quite a lot of assistance.

The rest of the flight went OK.

The Earthquake

Our first day in Wellington, 13th November 2016, was really delightful. Our hotel room on the 23rd floor was large and we had access to the “Club” – a promise of free booze and nibbles each evening! And free coffe and snacks at other times.

Selfie of Greg and Trenna
“Enjoying the lovely weather together in Wellington”

Wellington’s weather was beautiful and we found the city to be attractive and interesting. I remember us remarking to each other how much we will enjoy exploring it over the next week or so.

It was approaching midnight by the time we got to bed.

We were both moving around on the bed – innocently – trying to get comfortable for our first night in this city.

We had just started to settle, 2 minutes past midnight, when it became obvious that the shaking wasn’t just us in bed.

We had both lived in Darwin, and had been through quite a few earth tremors. We knew what it was. However, it was WAY more severe than we had ever experienced.

The advice in Darwin, when a cyclone is approaching is to take refuge in the bathroom or toilet. The idea being that the pipes and lack of windows give some added structural integrity – and if your dwelling does actually collapse around you you may be able to access water whilst they dig you out!

We both made for the toilet and closed the door. Hugging each other and reconfirming our love for each other. We wouldn’t have had much clothing on!

We were scared because the 23rd floor was moving A LOT. Our room was on the outside corner of the building and we could hear lots of things breaking outside.

We were being thrown from one side of the toilet to the other and then back again.

I thought there was a very real chance we could die.

I was imagining the floor cracking open and us in free fall through 23 toilets as we plummeted to our inevitable death in a shower of porcelain toilet bowls and tiles. It ABSOLUTELY was SOME comfort that I was with my wonderful wife.

After what seamed (pun intended) like forever – the 2016 Kaikoura earthquake lasted about two minutes – it all stopped.

We knew with a quake like that there were bound to be aftershocks so we grabbed our pants, our wallet/purse, passports, bag of medications, phones and an iPad. And we got out of that room.

Smashed Crockery in a shop window
The T2 shop suffered a fair bit of damage – no bull!


Clearly we needed to get downstairs. We were conscious of using the lift, in case there was another shock, but with Tren’s heart it was obvious the lift was the only way to go.


It took us immediately, with no stops, to the foyer.  We jumped out of the elevator car to ….. nothing.  No other guests??


We wondered if there was some evacuation meeting point that no one had told us about.


Slowly it dawned on us, and it was confirmed by a trickle of people emerging from the stairwells, we had just made the journey quicker than everyone else.


Before long hotel staff started herding us into a foyer area with armchair seating.  They made reassuring comments about building standards and that so far they had no reports of damage to the hotel.


Outside various emergency vehicles criss crossed the city.


Our area didn’t get overly full so we presume some people stayed in their room, and others probably went outside looking for somewhere safer.
Staff counselled us against going outside because of the risk of loose pieces of building falling to the ground.  This seemed sensible enough.  

Facebook Post about the Earthquake
Trenna’s Facebook post written in the hotel foyer after the quake


Some news trickled in over the internet, and Trenna, always thinking of others , sent messages to family, friends and Facebook to reassure them we were OK.

 
The staff seemed well organised and very reassuring.  Even more so when they served hot chocolate and warm muffins to anyone interested.


Probably about 2am the staff said they had inspected the building and they were confident it was safe to return to our rooms.  They said it was safe to use the elevators.


Some guests were very reluctant and they were encouraged to stay in the foyer if that is where they felt comfortable.


There had of course been small tremors during this period.
Trenna and I didn’t feel very comfortable, but we figured we were probably no worse off having 3 floors collapse onto us whilst we slept, as having 26 floors fall down on us in the foyer.


We made our way to the lift, entered, alone, and pushed button number 23.
All seemed normal as the lift whizzed upwards, until …..at level 20, …. BANG!!!!  …..  “FUCK” exclaimed I.  “We’re going to die after all” I DIDN’T say, even though I thought it.


Immediately there was a sudden deaccelleration of the elevator car, and it L-I-M-P-E-D up to floor 23 and S-L-O-W-L-Y opened its doors.  We jumped out immediately, not sure what to expect next.


Trenna told me that when the explosion occurred she immediately felt the floor of the lift heat up.


Aftermath

Excerpt of Trenna's Facebook Post
Trenna’s reply the next morning to responses to her earlier post

The next morning we learnt many things.  Among them:

  • The shock had a magnitude of 7.8
  • Sadly, two people had been killed elsewhere in NZ
  • The city centre (where our hotel was located) was closed, and people were asked to stay away from it.  Almost every shop was closed
  • The main stadium in the city (where my conference was to be held) had been damaged. The conference was cancelled.
  • The Wellington airport was damaged and was closed to facilitate emergency use only
  • The only road to the rest of New Zealand was closed due to a “Slip”, a landslide.
  • Our buffet breakfast wasn’t going to happen, but makeshift arrangements were made to feed us
  • Other meals also were a bit ad hoc. But the hotel did a good job considering the damage the earthquake had done
  • Our room’s mini bar fridge door was shut, but its contents were spread all over the room.  We surmised that with each shake of the room the fridge door sprung open, some of the contents fell out and then the door slammed shut.  And that this happened over and over until there was nothing left in it.
  • AND the the hotel’s Club room on the 25th floor had been wrecked by the quake and there would be no free booze and snacks for us!
  • AND that lift we travelled up in – it’s doors stayed open, and it didn’t move from the 23rd floor for the remaining 2 or 3 days that we were there.

After a couple of days we eventually were able to get a hire car, and when the road was cleared we spent 3 or 4 days driving back to Auckland for an earlier than planned return flight.  

Along with no conference, there was no holiday component to the trip.  Many things throughout the island were closed and the many aftershocks were a constant reminder of a terrifying experience.

There is one, interesting additional part to the story.

Postscript to the Aftermath  

I had taken out travel insurance with QBE when I bought the one-way Qantas tickets.  We had to fill out additional medical information about Trenna’s health issues, and also to extend it to cover the 2 weeks we intended being away.  The medical data was assessed and we were assured, that with the payment of an additional premium we would be covered (nothwithstanding LOTS of pre-existing medical condition exclusions).

When we got home I was going to put in a claim, thinking earth quakes were not a medical condition that Trenna had previously had.

I got busy with the return to work. Trenna was exhausted from the whole experience. And other things just got in the way.  I thought about it in later months and years but didn’t put in a claim.

Then, in 2021, the year after Trenna had died, and after I had retired from work, I decided would do it.

I compiled a thick dossier of receipts, historical records showing that the earthquake occurred, an itinerary, and a list of claims. When I went to lodge the claim I realised that QBE had sold it’s travel insurance business to another insurer – NIB. WTF!

Nevertheless I lodged it and waited.  Eventually they got back to me to say they had no record of me paying the additional premium. WHAT!  This seemed ridiculous.  Why would I do all the extra paperwork, and disclose all the medical data and then not pay the premium.  Especially as the premium wasn’t very large as compared to the cost of the Business Class flights.

I won’t go into the details, but I searched a lot.  Eventually I had to agree with them.  There is no evidence I ever paid that additional premium.  I was stunned, but think it was my own silly fault.

In the end I argued that the initial small premium I paid when I first bought the Qantas ticket should give me some cover.

They agreed, or wanted to shut me up, and I was paid $202.45.  Which under the circumstances I thought was perfectly fair.

Trenna, was always very organised and meticulous about paying bills on time.  She never knew about this failing on my part, so I can’t be sure what she would have thought about this.  But, I can imagine ……

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