NZ survivor: I'm going back

A New Zealand woman who was working at a Thai beach resort pummelled by the Boxing Day tsunami is amazed that she survived.

But 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, metres from the resort.

Miss Nash, a former Northland representative golfer, helped survivors in the aftermath.

The small island of Ko Pu, off Kata Beach, bore the brunt of the tsunami, sparing Kata from its maximum force.

"It could have easily been me [that died]. I guess something was on our side," Miss Nash said.

Although about 5000 people died in Thailand, 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.

She is not letting the disaster put her off returning to Thailand.

"It's not like a terrorist attack," she said. "These things happen and there's nothing we can do, unfortunately, to prevent it.

"I want to see the team I work with and make sure they're all okay."

Miss Nash had been working as a golf instructor at the luxurious resort in Kata Beach, about 890km south of Bangkok, since November.

She was giving lessons to five guests on a driving range away from the beach when the tsunami struck.

"I didn't understand what a tsunami was ... It was like a dream. It was like, what just happened?"

She went to the resort's theatre, which is on higher ground, and soon after guests started arriving, covered in blood and mud.

The guests and Club Med employees then walked 35 minutes uphill to a temple.

For the next 12 hours Miss Nash and her workmates helped guests, found food and water and comforted distraught people.

As Miss Nash was kept busy helping people, 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 themselves.

She has been "hibernating" in the comfort and quiet of her parents' Kamo home, recuperating before she flies back 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."

- NZPA