<The Earth had been shaking for a thousand days, as the Brunhes Chron of stable magnetic polarity ended. After a period of 750,000 years, during which time compass needles pointing to almost exactly the same magnetic north, alignment had suddenly reversed. The disruptive change happened far more quickly and violently than most seismologists had predicted. What started as a steady build-up of volcanic activity in 2025 became a three year period of massive geological upheaval. The start may or may not have been triggered by excessively violent solar flare activity. Scientists never reached a consensus as to whether it was magnetic flux in the Sun that triggered the changes deep in the Earth’s mantle, or just the natural rhythms of the Earth itself. They argued for months as civilisation started to fall apart. Now it will probably be hundreds of years before wise men again build the skills to even begin to understand such things. In 2025, human civilization took a giant leap back into a less technologically advanced time.
On the North Island of New Zealand, one of the previously most active volcanic zones on Earth, seismic activity had been predictably bad. However, if anything volcanic activity actually had less of a catastrophic effect on human life here than in many previously more stable geological areas of the planet. New Zealand had always needed to be prepared for major geological activity. Nevertheless, fully half the population was lost to just one cataclysmic event, the Taupo explosion of Dec 21st 2025. Devastating as it was, geological records showed this to have been a mere seismic hiccup by Taupo’s standards. Mild or not, what had long been the centre of a large lake became the peak of a new mountain. Geologically close volcanoes, particularly Ruapehu and Taranaki, had been consistently very active for over three years. Sunshine hadn’t regularly penetrated the skies of North Island for over two of those freezing cold years, until just a few weeks ago. Now, for the first time since The Great Shake there'd been two days of glorious clear blue sky.>
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'Today I saw the new mountain that has grown out of the central plateau really clearly. It protrudes like a new Everest above the old horizon.
As you read above, I am trying to write a short summary of our cataclysmic times. I am not sure why I am bothering, except that I’m probably one of very few survivors who can. I sit at an antique bureau in one of the few remaining undamaged homes in the small town of Koitiata, the date is the 2nd August 2029. I am an old man compared to most survivors. Youth didn’t do much to improve one’s odds in the indiscriminate way catastrophe works, but has proved very important to chances of survival since. Of course, once life began to settle down my maturity helped me gain first influence and then power. There are about five hundred of us here, surviving on this west coast. Our 2024 population of about 120 souls has been swelled by survivors from Wanganui, and regions to the South. From the few that have reached us from south of Levin we know that there are significant numbers of survivors down that way, or at least that there were.
Just north of here lava flows from the volcanoes actually reached as far as the sea. This means that the lava travelled some hundred kilometres from Ruapehu before freezing. Survivors from Wanganui suggest that the lava flows came from the east rather than from the direction of Taranaki. We believe that all the forests of Waitotara and all the best farmland to the north and east have been buried, along with almost every single trace of civilisation. We must hope that the worst has past; that the few days of normal daylight are harbingers of millions to come. We can’t even hear the familiar deep rumblings from what was the Tongariro plateau, as they have steadily quietened over the eighteen months. Quakes are still common, but then they always were. Has the planet calmed for more than a brief respite? I assume so.
I have imposed governance over our community. Only discipline can save us; only a single minded focus can marshal enough forces to make the most of our opportunities. The single mind is mine. I had to hang another renegade yesterday. He was caught pinching rations from the storehouse. Now he is much needed meat for our dogs. Our inventory shows, three horses, twenty-three sheep, five cows, two of which are in milk, and a single bull calf we are relying on to mature. Our old bull died from eating something unwholesome. We have large numbers of possums and rabbits, which are our main source of meat, and roughly forty dogs. Most of our energy goes into growing fodder, gathering the, until recently ever scarcer, seaweeds, and growing kumara, and silver beet. There just hasn't been sufficient light to grow much else. Rhubarb would like the sulphur, if only we had some. Our remaining stocks of wheat and barley have been preserved as best we can. Come what may, we must plant those seeds this spring or risk a sharp loss of already failing potency.
