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Imagine - one night you go to bed, safe and warm. Then you are woken by a sharp jolt, and deafened by a huge explosion.
You can hear the screams of your brothers and sisters. You still don't know what has happened.
Outside is the most spectacular view. Across the lake the mountain is erupting in balls of fire.
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Some people are gathering their things and heading for the bush. Others scramble back inside their homes to keep safe. Your eyes are hurting and the hot ash falling on your face is beginning to burn. You go back to your house and family and comfort each other. The deafening roar will not stop, the air is getting harder to breathe. Outside the ash is getting heavier, and the roof begans to creak under the weight. |
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It's too late to leave now, because the ash is too deep to walk through. Daddy looks worried and Mummy is crying. The roof groans some more.
You live in Te Wairoa, you are terrified and you only have two more minutes to live.
 Charles
Haszard
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This is what it would have been like for the 108 people who died in the eruption. Most of them were Maori, living in the villages around the area. Many of them died when the roof of their house collapsed under the ash. Some Europeans living nearby were also killed, including these children who were the children of the schoolteacher, Charles Haszard. Only three members of that family survived, and five of them died, including Charles Haszard. |
For days, rescuers dug through mud and ash. The schoolteacher's wife was found alive, and the tohunga who had predicted the disaster was also dug out alive, but he died soon afterwards.
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Guide Sophia |
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Adolphus,
aged 10
Edna, aged 6
Mona, aged 4