Having lived most of my life in the UK, up to the time I was around 32, I hadn't been to Uni yet, to study Geography and the Environment, but thought I knew enough to get an idea of the relative instability of NZ, compared to the UK, for earthquakes. The UK has many earthquakes a year, hundreds, in fact, but they are mainly tiny. However, if you've ever been lying in bed, and thought, 'hello, did I feel trembling?' you probably aren't imagining it. But 32 years without anything being a big deal was a recipe for stability, in my mind.
Then I moved to NZ. Of course, New Zealand has quite a reputation for earthquakes, owing its existence to being the upper part of a subduction zone, where two tectonic plates come together, and one slides under the other. I was in the country for about 8 hours and woke up about 3am with the bed skidding across the floor. Next morning at breakfast I mentioned the bed moving. The response was, 'Aw yeeeah! Thet wus e luttle 'un'. During the rest of my time there I realised they hadn't been kidding.
