Yvonne Collett is offering southern ticket-holders space at her Half Moon Bay home. Photo / Greg Bowker
A campaign has started to find 1000 free rooms in Auckland for quake-affected Christchurch rugby fans with World Cup quarter-finals tickets.
Two quarter-finals which were to have been played in Christchurch in October have been shifted to Auckland following damage assessments to tournament facilities and infrastructure.
Cantabrians face steep travel
bills to make use of their tickets, and Aucklanders are now volunteering to open their homes to ticket-holders.
"I just hope they can keep their tickets," said Annette Murray, who is offering a bedroom and bathroom in her Pukekohe home.
"This saves them from another added cost."
She had a daughter in Christchurch and knew what the city had gone through.
"If you can let people enjoy themselves, you can't beat being part of [a World Cup] atmosphere."
Ticket-holders for all Christchurch matches will receive refunds and be given priority to buy replacement tickets for rescheduled matches.
Yvonne Collett, an Auckland schoolteacher, has three rooms available in her Half Moon Bay home - "take your pick", she says.
Mrs Collett also signed up with the Red Cross to put up anyone from Christchurch needing accommodation, but she said she never heard back from the organisation.
"I still wanted to do something, and we're rugby fans," Mrs Collett said.
"If we can help, we're more than happy to share our house."
Rugby referee Smudge McNeilage has put together a Facebook campaign to collect 1000 offers of accommodation. He said he wanted to support Cantabrian rugby fans who had "been through hell".
"And to top that off, they now find they have lost their two Rugby World Cup quarter-finals."
The campaign was in the process of finding offers in Auckland before moving on to link up with ticket-holders in Christchurch, he said.
Canterbury Metropolitan Rugby chairman Murray Withers said he owned quarter-finals tickets but was considering giving them up.
"For the quarter-finals, you've realistically got to go Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and at the end of the day you're looking at costs over $500."
There were many people in Christchurch rugby circles debating what to do with their tickets, and offers of accommodation from generous Aucklanders could tip the balance, he said.
"The accommodation cost is obviously one of the factors for the Christchurch people looking to go north. It's the great unknown in terms of travel costs."
