I felt like I couldn't walk. It was horrible' | Manawatu-Wanganui News | Local News in Manawatu-Wanganui

A Wanganui woman caught up in Christchurch's earthquake drama has told of nervous tension in the city.

Michelle Vipond was in Christchurch doing a two-year Art and Design School contemporary photography course, when the 7.1 magnitude quake struck. She has since left Christchurch along with her three flatmates to take a break from the clusters of aftershocks, warnings not to go near the CBD, sewage overflows and having to boil all drinking water. They left Christchurch late on Sunday night.

"We made up our minds in like 10 minutes and at 11pm we took off for Nelson, where the parents of one of my flatmates live."

Miss Vipond, 25, said the nervous tension was really getting to them.

"Our flat in Linwood was overcrowded because so many of our friends who were living in the city came out to our place because our place was still standing. Well, there's a couple of cracks in the walls but that's all. I mean their places had just crumbled. It's those bricks, you know, they fall everywhere."

The force of the earthquake was such that you just could not really get on your feet, she said.

"I felt like I was swimming, like I couldn't walk 'I felt like I couldn't walk' in quake

because everything kept moving. It was horrible and hard to get your head around. It's like you've been taken over. "

After contacting her family in Wanganui on Saturday to let them know she was okay, Miss Vipond grabbed her camera and headed into the city.

"It was incredible to see. It was unbelievable. It's a real mess ... There's just bricks, bricks and more bricks."

She walked around for more than two hours, taking dozens of photographs.

"I just had to do it and I'm glad I did."

With the central business district now cordoned and closed off she would not be able to get the pictures she got on Saturday, she said.

Leaving Christchurch for a couple of days meant being able "to just take a bit of space".

"We really needed some time out. We couldn't get through Kaiapoi so went right out and drove over Arthurs Pass to the West Coast and actually it was okay."

Janice Vipond, Michelle's mum in Wanganui, said she was very relieved to talk to her daughter on Saturday morning.

"I spoke to her about 6.30am. I had the radio beside my bed on 2ZB and they were on to it, thank goodness. So I was able to listen to what was happening."

Mrs Vipond said the course Michelle was doing was specialised and that she had had to go to Christchurch to do it.

"She's booked to fly up to Wellington this weekend, so I'm going down to see her. Yes, I'm just so pleased she's all right and I really want to see her. I'm so thankful she is fine, I really am."