Local trio tell of Nepal quake damage

Flowers, chocolates and breakfast in bed may have made this Mother's Day special for many, but for the parents of three Stratford girls, the best Mother's Day present came early in the form of news their daughters were safe, despite being in Nepal at the time of the recent earthquake.

Alice Walsh, Kate Crocker and Janine Kokje were all in Nepal on separate trips at the time of the devastating 7.8 magnitude earthquake, which killed more than 7,000 people.

Kate and Janine are now safely home, but Alice, a 23-year-old 6th year med student based at Otago's Wellington campus, is still there. Alice is on a medical elective with "Work the World" which finishes this week, as she couldn't easily get flights out after the earthquake she decided to stay and complete the elective. Marilyn Walsh, Alice's mother, says they are looking forward to Alice coming home, but understand her decision to complete her placement first.

"We were lucky because we were both out at the movies when the earthquake hit, so didn't know about it until Alice got a message to us that she was safe. So her father and I didn't have that awful panic of not knowing if she was ok, we knew that first."

Marilyn says that Alice tells her she and some colleagues were having lunch when the earthquake hit. Her colleagues didn't realise it was an earthquake at first, but Alice, having been in Dunedin and Wellington when earthquakes hit before, recognised the signs and they got out into the street, fearful of the building's structural safety.

The area, Pokhara, that Alice is in, was fortunately not as badly affected as other areas, and Alice has been able to continue her placement at the hospital as well as helping the Nepalese translator who is assigned to the foreign workers distribute food and temporary shelter to those in need. The hospital where Alice is based has also been treating patients from surrounding areas who have been flown in with earthquake related injuries.

"She has found it quite frustrating not being able to speak Nepalese," says Marilyn, adding that the ability to contact Alice easily has been very important to her and Terry over the past couple of weeks. "It is great that we are able to talk with Alice all the time, so we know she is okay, and we know where she is in relation to the aftershocks."

Kate Crocker is now at her parent's Stratford home, having left Nepal in the week after the earthquake. The 25-year-old nurse was on leave from her job as a theatre nurse at Starship Hospital, and had gone to Nepal to explore the country and complete some treks. "I was actually on a trek, called the Poon Hill Circuit, when the earthquake hit. There was a group of us and of course we were just out in the bush, so there were no buildings or anything. We felt this big shake, and it went for ages. When it stopped, it was a bit surreal, we sort of looked at each other wondering if we had really experienced it. It was only when we got to Ghorapuni, a village, later that day, and a big aftershock hit, that we realised how major it was.

Kate was keen to contact her family and let them know she was safe, but with power out in the village, she couldn't get a connection. "Luckily there was an Asian couple there, and their mobile network from home was working, so I was able to send a text to Mum and Dad and let them know I was ok."

The next day Kate continued on to a larger town where she saw how damaging the earthquake had been. "That was when I started to get nervous, wondering how I was going to get home as lots of the roads had big landslides and were impossible to use. The main road from where I was to Kathmandu where I was to fly out of was already in a bad state before the earthquake, so I was worried as to how bad it would have got since." Kate spent the next five days in a town, helping out where she could and taking the opportunity to see Janine Kokje who had also been travelling in the area. "Our parents got in contact with each other, and then put us in touch with each other, so it was nice to see a familiar face at that point."

While Kate is now back in Stratford, she says the experience hasn't put her off travelling, and she is planning to carry on, heading towards Canada to work as a nurse in the future.

Janine is also back in New Zealand with her partner Hayden who she had been trekking in Nepal the week before the earthquake hit. "We were in a town, in the guest house where we staying when the earthquake started, we recognised the signs and therefore got out onto the street."

Janine and Hayden had originally planned to continue travelling, with India next on their list, however Janine says the decision to head back to New Zealand instead was made for them. "We couldn't really book anything or make plans as there was no wifi or internet easily available. So it was easier to come back to New Zealand instead."