Dudley tourists left shaken after devastating New Zealand earthquake

A huge quake of a magnitude-7.8 hit the south of the country, near Christchurch, shortly after midnight local time (around 11am here) on Sunday (November 13), claiming two lives and injuring many others.

Such was the impact of the shake, tremors were felt hundreds of miles away causing panic amongst residents.

Sarah Gee, an environmental health officer who lives in Dudley, said she and fellow guests of the Nelson city hotel she is staying were woken up to find the building shaking.

She is currently on holiday in the country with her father, retired Gornal GP Richard Gee, until November 25 but the earthquake has almost certainly put paid to their plans to travel to Christchurch next week.

Sarah, who works for Wolverhampton City Council, said: “The tremors woke me up just after midnight here and I found the earth literally moving.

“The bed was shaking, doors were rattling and the water in the swimming pool - which is right by my room window - was splashing about.

“The tremor went on for about 30 seconds to a minute and it was really confusing and disorientating.

“Lots of people in the hotel woke up and were wondering what was going on. I tried to get back to sleep after a while but there were rumbles through the night.

“When I did wake up at around 7am, after finally getting to sleep, I had lots of messages from concerned family and friends. Thankfully, because of social media, I was able to alleviate their worries and let them know we were ok.”

The 42-year-old added: “I have never experienced anything quite like it before. Dad was GP at Lower Gornal Health Centre when the quake hit the area in 2002.”

She said she would now be contacting their travel reps to see what the situation is regarding visiting southern parts of the country.

“We are supposed to be visiting Christchurch at some point but guess we will probably have to miss it. But things seem pretty calm up here now.”