Kia Kaha Christchurch

This evening I joined what looked like thousands of other Kiwi's to attend the Prayer Vigil at Westminster Cathedral in London. I arrived in the Piazza area at about 6.15pm, which was already quite packed. I stood, wedged shoulder to shoulder amongst so many familiar accents and believe it or not, despite being that jammed in amongst that many people, I felt a strange sense of calm. It was pleasant hearing all those familiar accents and standing there, all for the same reason. To pay our respects to Christchurch. 


After about twenty minutes of standing in the Piazza, the space becoming more packed by the second, the doors were open and we began herding in... it was rather cattle-like! I just found this online:

8:40am: Hayley Westenra leads the vigil for Christchurch earthquake victims in singing the national anthem at Westminster Cathedral in London.

Thousands of ex-pat Kiwis have turned up to pay their respects, show their support and mourn the lost of friends and family in the quake.

The crowd is estimated at about 4000 and is overflowing outside.

RadioLIVE reporter Samantha Blanchard says it is a distinctly Kiwi crowd and they are comforting each other.

I would believe that there were about 4000...it seemed like thousands! I made it inside the Cathedral and was standing in the right wing near the front. I couldn't see the front of the church, but in saying that I was not there to see anything, but to listen. There were hundreds of people with cameras out, but I didn't feel it was appropriate to be taking photos inside. The service began with a welcome by Canon Christopher Tuckwell from Westminster... who unfortunately introduced Hayley Westenra as Hayley Westenrana... (Oops!). It was followed by a Maori version of "How Great Thou Art" with a choir, which was followed by the English version. Probably not the best choice of hymn as most people didn't know it so it felt quite awkward. One of the volunteers afterwards I was speaking with was saying how he felt perhaps there needed to be a conductor or something. I was thinking, hey - I would have done that!!!

There was an opening prayer, then a scripture reading. It was comforting being in a Catholic church as I knew what was going on and what to do when prayers were read. It finished with some first hand accounts being read out, which were pretty heart wrenching. That was where my tears started! How terrifying it must have been. It finished with Hayley Westenra leading the NZ National Anthem, which I sang - but found incredibly difficult to control my voice! Argh to emotion! 

When the service finished, most of the crowd cleared out pretty quickly, but being I was by myself and didn't really have anything to go home to, I decided I hang around and sit in the church for a bit. I found myself a spot and just sat, contemplating the whole situation and thinking about the enormity of the Earthquake and what it will mean for Christchurch, its residents and the country as a whole. I was pretty 'far away' when a man in a suit came quite close to me and tapped me on the shoulder, leaned down and said "Hi, my name is (insert a name here, I can't remember it!) and I am from TVNZ... I was wondering if you would mind being interviewed?". I was like... "Ummm... OK?" but actually thinking - "I don't know what to say to a camera and I have been crying for most of this service!!!!" 

I stood up and he asked me a bunch of questions, which I am hoping I answered coherently... he said afterwards that I was a star ... haha! So... watch out on the news, you might just catch a glimpse of me being interviewed, and rumour has it that Mum saw me singing on the news during the service... eek. It was a great service and humbling to be amongst so many proud Kiwi's. I sure am proud to be one of them. 

Kia Kaha Christchurch... there is more money on its way from tonight to help you... (I saw bucket-fulls... literally thousands and thousands of £'s!)

Cheery bye, friends and family xxx