Dominic Carter and Kathy Atherton have been waiting to hear from Wendy du Toit from Rangiora Museum which is situated a short distance from Christchurch.

Wendy came over from NZ a couple of years ago, to research the food parcels that were sent from her community of Rangiora to Dorking in the 1940s. Several people helped her out and put her in touch with members of the community who had memories of the food parcels and she gave us a presentation on her research.

Wendy is very active in the local museum and she works in the city so all at the museum here were very concerned to find out if she and her family were all safe and sound.

Yesterday an e mail arrived.

"Dear Kathy, Dominic and all the Members of the Dorking Museum and Heritage Centre,

I'm sorry I haven't got back earlier but it's been a surreal week.  Yesterday the country stopped for two minutes at 12.51, exactly a week after the earthquake and it bought it home how devastating to our city this will be.

We live in Rangiora, half an hour from Christchurch, and we had no damage at our place and the Rangiora museum only lost a plate so they were very lucky.  I was on duty at school in Christchurch and it was horrendous as you battled to stand up and then had 650 screaming children to co-ordinate and calm until their parents came who were equally distressed.

Thank you so much for your kind thoughts and I know that the Christchurch we know will never be the same as we have lost so many historical buildings.  They are in the process of trying to save the Cathedral at the moment but there are still bodies inside.  The CBD still has the cordon around it so at the moment we are only seeing what the rest of the world sees so I'm not sure how my old haunts have fared but I doubt there are many places left.  My school is a welfare centre so we are still closed and probably won't open until next week.   You feel guilty that you have had no damage and have power and water.  I have a friend who is still without water and power eight days later.  Our community has really united in this disaster and we still have a long way to go but we know we have everyone's support.

Thanks again for your thoughts.

Wendy"

Wendy, Kathy and Uly taken in Kathy's garden during Wendy's visit to the UK.

For more information on how the community is dealing with the after effects of the earthquake - visit their website.