Ōhope campground owner's early wake up, 'it rocked alright'

Friday, 5 March 2021

Ōhope Top 10 owner Ian Smith's day began at 2.30am, knocking on doors to tell guests to evacuate the holiday park.

For Ian Smith, who only took over ownership of Ōhope ’s Top 10 holiday park on Monday, there was an early start on Friday.

Smith said he was awakened at around 2.30am with the first earthquake.

“It rocked alright, I knew,” he said.

That was when the former chief fire officer at Waihi Beach began knocking on doors “straight through the place” to tell his 150 plus guests it was time to head for higher ground.

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Cars, people and pets were crammed onto the high point of the Pacific Coast Highway between Whakatane and Ohope.

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Some tsunami ecavuees took the chance for an impromptu picnic.

Smith said the bulk of the visitors heeded the advice straight away, though some elderly guests opted to take their chance with the tsunami.

“That’s fairly common among some elderly people,” he said.

“There was no panic, the whole evacuation thing has been well drilled into people. It was extremely orderly.”

A few hours earlier, and a few kilometres up the road at the high point on the Coastal Pacific Highway, thousands of people were waiting on the all clear.

When Stuff arrived there were cars lined up on both sides of the road and throngs of people on the pavements. Lots had bought their four-legged friends with them and some were tucking into impromptu picnics, there were games of cards underway and some took the time to catch up on their reading.

No one seemed annoyed or frustrated at the wait, and with a number of car stereos playing music in parts the atmosphere was almost carnival like.

Some used the waiting time to catch up on their reading.

It made a stark contrast to the drive in from Rotorua. It’s not usually a stretch of road that could be described as eerie, but when you’re in the only car heading in one direction, while streams of cars pass the other way, that was exactly how it felt.

There were also pockets of people congregating at camp grounds and by the sides of the road.

Waiting on the high point of the Highway, Pat McKee said she felt the initial earthquake at 2.30am.

“(It was) rolling, it went on for a few minutes.”

She said people started leaving Ōhope shortly after the first Civil Defence text alerts arrived.

Brenda Rowe and Dante Rowe were also woken in the small hours by “a decent shake”.

Brenda said that after feeling the earthquake, she “didn’t think twice” before heading for higher ground.