TV stars visit tireless Christchurch earthquake workers

Outrageous Fortune stars Robyn Malcolm and Siobhan Marshall share a laugh with hard-working linesmen in Christchurch. Photo / Supplied

Outrageous Fortune stars came bearing gifts and a lot of laughs for Christchurch linesmen yesterday who had been working 16-hour days while trying to reconnect power to the city.

Robyn Malcolm and Siobhan Marshall surprised 300-400 field workers from Orion New Zealand Limited with morning tea and Hoochi Mama and Tool Guys t-shirts.

Tool Guys and Hoochi Mama are the West family-owned businesses from the popular television show.

The two went down to Christchurch for the day after Ms Malcolm's brother-in-law Roger Sutton, chief executive of Orion, asked her to make a surprise visit to lift the morale of his workers who had barely slept since the quake.

"The commitment that my people have shown has been quite extraordinary," said Mr Sutton. "Some of the guys lost their houses and were still working, I just thought if she came down and saw the guys, she would make a real difference.''

Ms Malcolm and Ms Marshall, who play mother and daughter Cheryl and Pascalle West on Outrageous Fortune, brought DVDs, books and
t-shirts from the show to give to the Orion workers.

At 10:33am yesterday Ms Malcolm tweeted: "Hanging with Connetics guys working 12-16 hour shifts in trenches restoring power to city. Awesome blokes. Can't believe what I'm seeing in this lovely city. Faces of people show deep stress and shock still."

Ms Malcolm said she couldn't believe the amount of devastation in Christchurch and wanted to help in any way possible.

"Rog asked if we could come down to give these guys a bit of a laugh after five or six days of heavy stress. The linesmen were really bloody tired, they were working so hard in muddy trenches trying to
reconnect the city up. They just looked exhausted," she said.

Ms Malcolm said the linesmen were "lovely, funny guys" and their dedication to the city was inspiring.

The workers were not the only ones pleasantly surprised to see the Outrageous stars in Christchurch, said Mr Sutton.

"One pregnant woman came out onto the street, amongst all the mess, just to hug her."

Ms Malcolm's mother and sister live in Christchurch and on
Saturday afternoon she wrote on Facebook: "Wish could be in CHCH today to help Mum clean up the mess. 5 year old nephew wondering why earthquake Gods so cross".

Ms Marshall was updating her Facebook and Twitter accounts religiously yesterday. One post read: "This South Island Kiwi pragmatism a helluva thing to witness. They have months and months of recovery ahead of them... Wish em well."

Ms Malcolm said bearing witness to the power of the earthquake was an
eye-opener to how vulnerable we are.

"We are so used to seeing devastation on the news we are a bit immune
to it, but going to a place I know really well and seeing the impact was really shocking."