February 22nd 2011 was a nice day. Not much wind, and clear blue skies. It was just a typical busy day doing sport.

I left the office early to head to Crusaders training. A couple of interviews in the bag- I had a decision to make...do I go back to the Worcester Street office, or do I go home and load the audio onto my brand spanking new laptop ? While I'm not a total gadget geek, the new laptop was kind of cool and the leftovers in my fridge made home the more attractive option.

Ten minutes later I was home. My laptop was logged on, my marantz with the audio was plugged in, and I was into my emails. I quietly started exchanging emails with fellow Ironman brother and commentator Cameron Harper. Suddenly...BANG. All hell broke loose.

I grabbed the laptop, dived under my dining table and typed the word "Quake" into my email to Cameron who quickly relayed the message to the Newstalk ZB Auckland newsroom. We were far from quake virgins by that time, but this was something else. My pantry was falling apart, pictures were flying off the wall, and items falling from shelves. Terrifying.

I can't remember whether I rang Danny Watson's Producer on Newstalk ZB, or they rang me? Either way, I got a report out. It was abundantly clear that there were going to be fatalities. We had dodged a bullet with the previous bigger September quake because it happened after 4am and there weren't many people up and about. This was different.

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The immediate focus for me was establishing whether or not my kids were safe. My daughter was easy to find. I raced a kilometre down the road and plucked her out of Windsor School. My son was a whole different story. It took two and a half hours to track him down.

The reason for owning a cellphone is underpinned by their need in times of an emergency. The telcos failed miserably. And they got away with it. It's a disgrace that even a week ago they temporarily failed after another quake. Eventually my son rode up my driveway on his mountain bike looking like a chimney sweep. He'd been helping a mate and his Mum dig out liquefaction and trying to stop it from pouring into their house.

In the months ahead, the new normal became aftershocks and guessing by the way they felt whether they were from the Greendale fault, or from out east. The Crusaders spent the season on the road in what could be argued was their greatest ever season. A very dodgy penalty awarded against Richie McCaw consigned them to a Super Rugby semi in South Africa, which effectively ended their chances of winning a final back in Australasia. My view is pretty much underlined by the fact that the Reds are probably the only team in the competition not to have built a legacy on the back of a title winning campaign.

In the right here right now, in a sporting sense, not a lot has changed since that fateful day five years ago. There's is still no replacement for Lancaster Park or QE2 Park. The temporary AMI Stadium is adequate but the city is missing out on many big events and there's sill no sign of the much talked about Metro Sports Hub. Effectively, it'll be a decade without proper sporting facilities.

The damage to elite sport is immeasurable, with so many sports people being forced to move away as they chase their dreams. Hagley Oval is the one shining light.

Time moves on. My new laptop is obsolete and was replaced last week (is that a bad sign?), and even the Worcester Street office is gone. Few of us who actually worked there mourned it's very spectacular implosion ! The worst air conditioning you could possibly imagine.

Does time heal all wounds ? Probably not- random aftershocks making an unwelcome return probably don't help.

The one thing that does help is humour. In my circle of work friends, we get the giggles when we hear well meaning people talking about how "resilient" Cantabrians are.

Resilient? Hell no! Fact is, we're still s**t-scared!