Sports celebrities reflect | Canterbury Sport | Surfing, Rugby, Soccer, Football, Cricket in Canterbury

Sports celebrities were not immune to the fury of the earthquake one year ago. Eight told Sports Editor Nick Tolerton of their experiences that day.

All Black captain RICHIE MCCAW:

 

I was on crutches, and sitting having sushi at Merivale Mall with Kieran Read by the supermarket, and everything was falling to pieces in there and I couldn't move far. People were panicking. I wasn't here for the September one, and I thought how bad was that compared to this one? I remember walking, well hopping, out to Papanui Rd, and the guy in the camera shop said there was a hell of  a lot more damage than we had in September.   At the time I didn't know how serious it was. I had no power at home, and mum and dad out at West Melton came and picked me up, and that evening seeing those collapsed buildings and no one really knowing, that's when like, wow, you realised it was very serious. At my place I had a lot of liquefaction and stuff. You're powerless, aren't you?  

Crusaders coach TODD BLACKADDER:

I was in my office at Rugby Park and it was pretty scary. We were all thrown around the office, and knew it was pretty serious. We thought the whole stand was going to fall over, it was a real rock and roller. I kept thinking with what it's like for us here, what's it like in other places?

The first thing was to make sure everyone was safe and then to make sure your families were safe, but I wasn't able to get in touch with my family. No one could - no power and no water and no cellphones. So there was a lot of uncertainty and a lot of anxiety for everyone. It was a couple of hours before I could make contact, but some people never got to make contact with their families with the CTV building and that, so we were pretty fortunate. I still thank my lucky stars today that we are still here.

Tactix netballer MAREE BOWDEN:

"We were in the High Performance Sport offices under QE2 stadium finishing off a team debriefing after we'd played our first match against the Fever the night before, and Helen (Mahon-Stroud) was up the front talking.

"All the lights went out and there were no windows in the room. I just ran for the door and some players huddled together under tables. There were a few screams. When we made our way out, a lot of us left our bags inside - including me - and were without keys, phones, or wallets.

"Luckily I knew my husband's number off by heart so I was able to get a phone from someone and call him. It took him about five hours to get to QE2 to pick me up. We live not far away from there but it took an hour to get home -- it was about 7pm. We were very lucky. Our home was OK and no one was injured."

All Black and Crusaders player ISRAEL DAGG:

I was driving home and was at a corner on Edgeware Rd. I thought my tyre popped and pulled over, and the whole road was going crazy. It was doing all these waves like we were in the sea, and power lines were going everywhere, and everyone was running around on the road.

My girlfriend was at home and I just hooned it there - it was only about 150m away. The house was a mess and my girlfriend was in shock, and there was liquefaction all round the house, and it had nearly flooded it. I had to chuck my gun safe down on the door to keep it from coming inside. It was bloody scary.

We had lots of cleaning up to do, and a few of the boys, Robbie Fruean and Tu Umaga-Marshall, came over and helped us clean up the liquefaction and the driveway, and we went down the road and helped out people there as well. That first night I'll never forget it, there were about 12 aftershocks that were quite similar to the big one.

Star harness racing driver DEXTER DUNN:

"I was at the yearling sales at the Showgrounds and they were held in a pretty big building which was earthquake-safe, but you could see the massive lights at the top swaying. Quite a lot of Aussies were over and they were pretty panicky - they all ran outside.

"The building got evacuated quickly, but we went back in and the sales carried on. We did not know about the damage in town. People started talking and heard a few buildings were down in town, but it was not til later that night that you got the momentum of how bad it was, when we were still at the sales and having a few drinks."

Rugby league personality FRANK ENDACOTT:

"I'd just had a group of people around home for a meeting, and they'd left only 5min before. I thought I would see what my wife was doing and she was kneeling in the garden picking tomatoes, so I thought I'd give her a hand. I'd reached the laundry when it hit, and I couldn't get out quick enough on to the lawn area.

"It's the first time I've seen the ground rolling -- I couldn't believe what I was seeing. I went running across the lawn and it knocked me over. I knelt down and saw the whole house shaking so violently, I thought it would fall down. Not long after that we got another decent aftershock, and I saw the cars in the carpark going from side to side.

"We're not far from the motorway, and later I saw ambulance after ambulance with their sirens on going to Christchurch from the north. You knew it was bad."

Canterbury cricket captain PETER FULTON:

"I was on the way back from lunch with my girlfriend who was out near the airport, and I was driving on Russley Rd. At first I thought something was wrong with the car - it felt like the wheels were going to fall off. I pulled over but out there I didn't feel a massive shock.

"I carried on driving into town, and I was sitting at the lights on Fendalton Rd-Glandovey Rd when the second aftershock hit. I saw a couple of brick fences fall over and I started to realise it was more serious.

"I drove back out to pick up my girlfriend from work, and it was a case of negotiating the traffic home and checking to see if my house and everyone were OK. It wasn't until I visited my parents who live in Ohoka and I saw the pictures on TV about 5pm of the CTV building and the CTV sign on the ground that I realised the full extent of it."

All Black and Crusaders player ZAC GUILDFORD:

I was at home with Sean Maitland. We'd just put some poached eggs on the oven for lunch and we sat down to play a game of Playstation in between trainings - and the earthquake went off. Me and Sean looked at each other and thought what's going on here? As it got bigger and bigger Sean ran outside and tried to jump a 2m fence. I pulled him off it and we ran down the driveway. It was pretty scary.

We made sure our neighbours were all right and went into town and tried to find Sean's girlfriend. There were some horrific sights in there. We went down Manchester St and got far enough where we could smell some gas and see a few pretty bad sights, so decided it would be best to turn around and help somewhere else.

After we found our girlfriends we went back to Izzy's (Israel Dagg) and set up camp there, and the next day were out shovelling our driveway and other people's driveways. I think the few weeks after of shovelling were harder than training! It kept us in good shape and we just tried to help out where we could.

All Black and Crusaders player KIERAN READ:

I was with Richie in Merivale Mall having some sushi. You could look into the supermarket and obviously tell it was a pretty decent shake because the whole place was going, and it was incredible, really, that no one got seriously hurt in there.

I tried to get home as quickly as I could to my wife and eight-week-old baby just over in Shirley. By the time we got outside liquefaction was coming through the sewer on the edge of the mall in Papanui Rd, and obviously the facade there hadn't fallen down yet because we actually were parked pretty much right there.

You could see the destruction on the way home and the roads were flooded, and it was quite a distressing little drive. There was a lot of liquefaction coming up at our place which was freaking out my wife Bridget - and she'd wrecked the basinet trying to keep the baby safe!