Tauranga mother Kerri Tilby-Price screamed with excitement when she heard her daughter's voice for the first time since Cyclone Pam hit Vanuatu, where the teenager was living.
Courtney Tilby, 18, has been volunteering as a teacher in the small village of Namaram on Pentecost Island, north of Port Vila, sinceearly February as part of a six-month trip.
Today, Miss Tilby was able to make the first contact with her family since the storm hit, with reception returning in an area near her village.
Mrs Tilby-Price said her daughter's home and school on Pentecost Island were barely touched by the cyclone and they knew nothing of the destruction and international media coverage of their surrounding islands.
There was no question in her daughter's mind that she would stay and she was very excited to hear her mother would be flying in tomorrow to assist with the rebuild on other islands.
Mrs Tilby-Price would fly into Port Vila and partner up with an organisation she could offer the most help to, while also organising a container-load of donated goods to be shipped from New Zealand.
Miss Tilby would be flown with other volunteers to a nearby island with more resources and better communication where she would liase with her mother and the pair would decide where they could help.
