A DUNSTABLE supermarket worker has told of her escape from the devastating earthquake which left Christchurch in ruins last week.
Christine Jones was holidaying with her travel agent partner Steve Pattenden and six other Brits in New Zealand’s second city when the quake, measuring 6.3 on the Richter scale, toppled buildings and killed 154 people.
Christine, a home delivery driver for Tesco’s store in Skimpot Road, told the Gazette yesterday: “It was absolutely horrifying, we all feared for our lives. We were actually in the main square in the thick of it.
“We’d been in a restaurant, which I gather was badly damaged, to book a table for that night, had a coffee and were heading towards the square to go on a cable car ride.
“As we got to the edge of the square the rumbling started and for a few seconds we didn’t know what it was.
“Then the ground just started shaking so violently.”
Mother-of-two Christine, 51, who lives in Redgrave Gardens, Luton, added: “A building collapsed just in front of us and there was a huge cloud of brick dust.
“We ran to the middle of the square away from surrounding buildings and then we saw the cathedral spire collapse. It was horrendous.
“People were crying and screaming and we were all fearful it was going to happen again. It was like a war zone.”
Eventually, the group were moved to the relative safety of Victoria Park and then on to Hagley Park, where a giant marquee, set up ahead of a forthcoming flower show, was used as an emergency shelter by the Red Cross.
Christine and her group were unable to get into their damaged hotel to collect their luggage and passports and are still waiting to be reunited with their possessions.
“All our luggage is still at the hotel,” said Christine.
“We’ve got nothing and it looks as though it could be some time before anyone is allowed in the hotel to collect it.”
In the early hours of the following morning they were jetted to the capital city, Wellington, on New Zealand’s North Island.
They were then taken to the British Embassy where they were given new passports.
The group were eventually taken to Auckland where they caught a flight home, arriving back in the UK on Thursday afternoon.
Christine said: “We just can’t thank the Red Cross and all the people who helped us enough.”
It is not the first time an earthquake has hit one of Christine’s holidays. An earthquake killed thousands in China weeks before she was due to holiday there in 2008.
