Survivor will return to help

A Northland woman whose Thai beach resort was pummelled by the Boxing Day tsunami is still incredulous she survived while thousands of others died.
And rather than be put off by the ordeal, Chantelle Nash, 26, is returning to work at the end of the month to help revive the island of Phuket.
The former Whangarei resident is counting her blessings after half of her workplace, Club Med Phuket, was ruined by the waves that hit Phuket's Kata Beach, just metres from the resort.
Miss Nash, who was a Northland representative golfer, also helped survivors in the aftermath.
The small island of Ko Pu, offshore from Kata Beach, bore the brunt of the tsunami, sparing Kata from the maximum force.
A mere 15-minute drive north, Patong Beach was devastated.
"It could have easily been me (that died). I guess something was on our side," Miss Nash said.
The tsunami killed over 150,000 people around the Indian Ocean - about 5000 of those were in Thailand. Miraculously, only one person died from Miss Nash's workplace, which employs 200 and accommodates 600 guests.
Miss Nash and a Rotorua woman were the only New Zealanders at the resort.
While she has been suffering flashbacks of the disaster - she tended to blood-covered, screaming tourists throughout Boxing Day - Miss Nash would not let it put her off returning to Thailand.
"It's not like a terrorist attack. These things happen and there's nothing we can do unfortunately (to prevent it)," she said.
"I want to see the team I work with and make sure they're all okay. Phuket survives because it's a tourist town and if people don't go back, they're not going to help them (Thai) at all."
Miss Nash had been working as a golf instructor at the luxurious resort in Kata Beach, about 890km south of Bangkok, since November.
She had been lapping up the 30degC-plus temperatures, "lovely" Thai hospitality, and meeting people from all around the globe when her world was turned upside down on Boxing Day.
It was 10am and, while giving golf lessons to five guests, she noticed "it was really weird, it was dead quiet". Soon after, a guest raced over to the driving range, just 50 metres from the beach, and convinced Miss Nash to look at the beach.
The normally crowded beach was empty - no people, no deck chairs, and the beach huts had disappeared.
Then about 20 minutes later, Miss Nash saw the ocean quickly suck out. She heard people shouting and Thai beach lifeguards blowing whistles to warn people of the second wave.
"I didn't understand what a tsunami was ... It was like a dream. It was like, what just happened?"
Miss Nash was then told to go to the resort's theatre, which is on higher ground, and soon after guests, young and old, arrived covered in blood and mud.
One guest could not stop screaming or shaking after her ground floor hotel room filled with water, leaving only a small gap for her and her children to breathe.
The guests and Club Med employees then walked 35 minutes uphill to a temple and for the next 12 hours Miss Nash and her workmates helped guests with their wounds, found food and water and comforted distraught people.
About midnight, Miss Nash and some guests made their way back to the resort. Mud was everywhere and it "smelt terrible". By torchlight, guests packed away possessions that were not ruined by the tsunami - "a lot lost everything" - before returning to the temple for an overnight stay.
However, she was shocked by some of the guests' attitudes.
"They were told to pack quickly and some people wanted to fold their clothes perfectly and others wanted to bring their vodka.
"I just thought, `my God, some people have lost everything and they were worried about folding their clothes'."
As Miss Nash was so busy helping people board planes home, the terror of the tsunami did not hit her for a few days. She was not able to sleep properly for about a week. "Once all the guests had left, I cried and broke down.''
After a week of cleaning up and sending guests home, Miss Nash and other employees were sent home.
Since Miss Nash returned to Whangarei, she has been "hibernating" in the comfort and quiet of her parents Kamo home, recuperating before she flies to Thailand at the end of the month.
"It's an experience I'll never forget. I'm bloody lucky to have experienced it and have survived."