On Friday, Susan Henderson couldn't wait to see her parents in Christchurch. But by the next morning, she couldn't wait to get out of the Garden City.
The mother of two from Titoki, 29km west of Whangarei, was caught up in the weekend's earthquake.
Her parents, in their 60s, live at Governor's
Bay in Lyttleton Harbour and Ms Henderson had planned to spend a quiet weekend with them.
Like the rest of Canterbury, she and her parents were woken by the violent shaking of the house just before dawn on Saturday.
Christchurch Airport reopened late on Saturday, enabling Ms Henderson to get back to Northland as planned.
"I'd never experienced it [an earthquake] before but became immediately aware of what it was. It was a roar of thunder and went on and on and felt a long time before it stopped," she recalled after touching down at Whangarei Airport last evening.
She breathed a huge sigh of relief upon seeing her husband Brian and sons Devan, 9, and Jordie, 7.
"There was carnage inside the house from damaged glassware and the like but interestingly, nobody heard anything breaking. All we could hear was rumbling."
Ms Henderson said she didn't panic but laid in bed throughout the ordeal which, according to her father, lasted between three and four minutes.
Her parents were terrified and thought their house would come down.
"I told them not to walk because there were broken glasses everywhere. We gathered as a family and found batteries, radio, our cellphones and torch," she said.
"It was a very rough train ride which you cannot control." she said.
Ms Henderson helped treat her parents' neighbours for shock and gave them food.
"I am pleased I was there to aid my parents but I couldn't wait to get out of the place ... I wanted to go home."
The 7.1 magnitude earthquake is estimated to have caused at least $2 billion damage to homes, buildings and infrastructure, and left thousands homeless.
Hundreds of people are afraid to return to their homes and spent Saturday night and yesterday in emergency evacuation centres.
