Residents offer help to quake victims

The people of Wanganui and surrounding areas have opened their homes to victims of the Christchurch earthquake, offering free accommodation for around 195 people.
Offers of spare rooms, sleepouts, baches and, in some cases, large family homes with half a dozen spare rooms have been posted on the Trade Me website's free Christchurch Earthquake Support listing. Among the 41 listings from "Wanganui", offers of accommodation have come in from Hawera, Taihape, Marton, Ohakune and Turakina, and include offers of hospitality to families, pensioners, teens, pets and even a naturist couple.
The offers range from free accommodation for a week, to an offer of a seven-bedroom family home indefinitely.
One Wanganui listing offers to take in two teens over the age of 14 for a break away.
The woman who posted the listing, who did not wish to be named, said she and her husband had two children of their own, both 15, and it was something they thought they might have liked to be able to do if they had been caught up in the quake.
She said if a family had a lot of work to do on their home cleaning up or rebuilding, it would be nice to be able to send the kids off somewhere safe so they could have a break away from the emotional stress.
"I think that's how I would feel, everyone needs to have a time out, that's all."
The woman said she can promise some good home cooking and a safe environment and hoped that someone would take up their offer.
Pets have not been forgotten either, with another Wanganui woman, Sue, offering a holiday for guinea pigs.
Sue, who has four guinea pigs herself, said she saw listings for lost and found animals following the quake, and thought people with guinea pigs might be having a hard time looking after them.
People often didn't realise how much attention they needed, she said.
Her own four guinea pigs, Suzuki, Gidget, Licorice and Milo, were all adopted from the SPCA in Wellington.
She sponsors a cage at the SPCA and takes home more guinea pigs when she can. She has had eight in total over the years.
Sue is offering to pay to fly the guinea pigs to and from Wanganui or Palmerston North and send regular photographs of the animals while they are away.
Another listing offers a grazing for a year to a horse, and temporary accommodation for its owner, while others specify that cats and dogs are welcome with families.
Other listings offer services, including those of an experienced business manager, a qualified mental health worker with grief and trauma case experience, and another offers a collection point for the student volunteer army.