The dreadful sights in Christmas make the problems here in Kapiti pale into insignificance. The sights of homes, building, roads destroyed is heartbreaking. But the problems of falling masonry is nothing to the deaths of so many people and the heartbreak of not knowing how you loved ones are faring. The staff at the hospital, evacuating the patients and then continung working on damaged people without knowing the fate of their own families and friends is truely professional.

The money required to rebuild Christchurch is much more important than building a motorway through Kapiti and deliberately destroying peoples' homes. That is just as destructive as an earthquake and much more deliberate and therefore reprehensible.