Quaky start for new manager on West Coast

Mike Duff - Buller's new senior manager. Photo / Westport News

The Buller District Council's new senior manager and his family got rocked around in Hanmer by the Kaikoura quake and are now sleeping on the floor of their rented home because their belongings haven't arrived.

But he sees it all as an "adventure".

"It's been fun, to be honest," says Mike Duff, who recently succeeded operations manager Steve Griffin. "What it's really shown is the warmth and generosity of the community."

Mr Duff, his wife Alyson, and their two-year-old son Harris were staying in Hanmer prior to Mike beginning his new job when the 7.8 magnitude quake hit about 20 kilometres away.

"We were fast asleep then bang, it just kept going - two, three, four minutes. Thankfully we were okay and that region was okay," he said yesterday.

Rockfalls blocked off road access to the town, forcing the family to stay a day longer than planned, but the owners of the apartment they were renting looked after them and put them up another night for free, he said.

The quake changed freight priorities from Australia, delaying a container of their belongings. Mr Duff said they weren't worried - a neighbour had loaned them a fridge, a work colleague had given them a tv set, and they were sleeping on foam mattresses on the floor.

He joked that Harris could hurtle from one end of the house to the other without hitting anything.

They'd enjoyed surviving with the bare necessities - when their stuff turned up, they were likely to decide they didn't need some of it and give it away, he said.

- Westport News