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. It was extremely orderly.”BENN BATHGATE/Stuff Cars, people and pets were crammed onto the high point of the Pacific Coast Highway between Whakatane and Ohope. 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.

Source: Stuff March 05, 2021 03:10 UTC