Rachel Conley

Rachel Conley. Photo / Supplied

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Rachel Elizabeth Conley, 27, of the United States, had just left the Southern Ink tattoo shop on Colombo Street when the earthquake struck.

She died when the building's facade crumbled around her.

Friends have set up a tribute page on Facebook for Rachel, who had been due to begin the return trip to her home of Beavercreek, Ohio, the day after the earthquake.

Rachel's stepmother, Deb Conley, said Rachel was "a beautiful soul".

"I'm so blessed she was a part of my life. She had a good spirit. She was the kind of person who would break into spontaneous song and dance and breathe life into everyone around her," Mrs Conley said.

She loved music and had been in the tattoo parlour to get the lyrics, "There's nowhere you can be that isn't where you're meant to be", from the Beatles song All You Need Is Love tattooed on her back.

Rachel spent the past year working as a receptionist at The New Zealand School of Dance in Newtown, Wellington and was travelling in the South Island before her scheduled trip back to Ohio, via Australia and Thailand.

Rachel kept a blog documenting her time travelling abroad and noted in an entry at the end of 2010 that she had learned: "that home is not necessarily the place I live or even where I grew up, but simply a feeling I get when I find a place I can rest for a while - a place that makes me feel comfortable and happy".

"This year I am thankful for the instant trust and connections I have made with people. For those who've let me be a part of their lives for however brief a time... They have inspired me to make life even more spectacular than I can imagine."