There was an aftershock at 1.25am this morning, five days after I arrived back in NZ. It was not a big one- 3.5 magnitude, but it was enough to wake us up- a short, sharp shake-up. “What was that about?” groaned Beti. “Don’t know” I muttered and turned over to go back to sleep. 3.5 doesn’t sound a lot and it isn’t, but, as we now know, the epi-centre was barely 300 metres away- out in the estuary, and just six kilometres below ground.  Six kilometres or three-and-a-half miles on the other hand, sounds rather a lot, but not in earthquake terms- that’s pretty shallow. In fact, it’s very shallow- and close! No wonder it woke us up. Welcome back to Christchurch.