John Key recalls learning about the Christchurch earthquakes while in a meeting at the Beehive in Wellington. The building, designed to withstand massive quakes and built on rubber, barely shook. His chief of staff told him just after 1pm that the serious shaking had hit Christchurch, minutes before Question Time.
The Beehive. In Wellington, buildings are built on a category for an earthquake, right? And so the Beehive, you'd be relieved to know, is built for, like, you know, a Category 9 earthquake. Like, on the Richter scale, off the chart. So. And the way they do that is they build it on rubber, so it actually moves. When you get these little shakes, it moves. And the prime Minister's office is always on the ninth floor, and there's only one floor above that, 10th floor, for cabinet rooms. So I was in this meeting. It was about, I don't know, ten past one or something in the afternoon. Just after one. Yeah. I'm in this meeting with this guy, and you always prepare for Question Time, which starts at 2, so you normally kick everybody out by about, you know, quarter past one so that you can, you know, get ready. And my chief staff, the thing starts shaking and stuff's going nuts in my office. And the chief staff, my chief staff walks in, and I thought he was throwing this guy out to, you know, say, get ready for Question Time. And he said, do you feel that? And I went, well, couldn't miss it. I said, no. Wellington having another shake. He goes, mate, that wasn't Wellington, that was Christchurch. And as soon as we knew that, we knew, you know, there's very serious issues.
