Mount Tarawera Eruption

My name is Alice Mansell and I live at Te Wairoa. My mum and dad own the Rotomahana Hotel. I go to the native school and in my spare time I help mum and dad in the hotel. The 10th of June was a normal day but in the night I was lying in my bed asleep when BANG ! Something fell off my shelf and on to the floor. I was woken right away and knew that there was an earthquake. Suddenly Mum came into the room and helped me to dress. Before going downstairs I snatched up a blanket so that I wouldn’t get cold. The time was 1:00 am. When I got downstairs I saw that everyone was going into the men’s smoking room. Dad was checking that everyone was here,

The earthquake was making it hard to walk around. So everyone sat on the floor or on chairs. Some people wanted to go outside because they saw something up Mt Tarawera. I begged Mum to let me go with them and to my surprise Mum came too. The lightning was like fireworks. Very fast Listen to the kiwis someone said. The kiwis were calling like they didn’t know what to do. Just then a shot of smoke came up from the second peak. Ruawahia , followed by a tremendous roar and shake which threw us all to the ground.

Then we decided to go back to the hotel. I looked out the window but I couldn’t see much because the window was on the wrong side. I started to talk to a girl that was staying at the hotel. After awhile we heard clattering on the roof and thought it was hail. But when I looked outside it was rocks being fired by Mt Tarawera,. First little ones and then bigger ones and the mud, it was firing mud with the rocks. Suddenly a big orange fireball came through the air. I looked and up and saw lots of fireballs.

Half an hour later Dad came in and told us the kitchen had fallen in and that we would all have to move to Sophia’s house. Sophia’s a guide and she shows tourists to the pink and white terraces. Her house was just built but it was about 50 metres away. Dad had seen alight from her house and it was still there. Mum wrapped a blanket around my head so it wouldn’t hurt so much from the rocks hitting me.

I walked in between Mum and Dad and each step I put that was knee deep. Rocks were hitting me everywhere. It took us about 15 minutes. Some people were not here and I see them again unless they found some sort of shelter. I was so tired I fell asleep as soon as I sat down in Sophia’s house.

When I woke up I saw that some others had come in when I was asleep. Outside thick ash was falling and I couldn’t see anything. All we could do was wait for everything to clear up.

Hours later it had cleared up a lot and people were going out to look for survivors leaving the kids in the house. I decided to go outside but when I got out I started to cry. Mud was on the ground. Knee deep everywhere. All the trees were bare. All the houses had fallen in from the rocks and mud. The school that I had gone to had burnt down. A fireball had set it alight and now it was just hot embers. People had died and animals were killed. Everything was destroyed, Everything would be different.