A group of 85 Bhutanese people are in Dunedin taking a break from the aftershocks which continue to shake Christchurch after the 6.3 magnitude earthquake on February 22.
The group, which is being hosted by the whanau ora collective He Waka Kotuia o Araiteuru with the support of the Araiteuru marae council, arrived by bus in Dunedin on Monday.
The group is largely made up of the elderly and disabled, women and children - their men have stayed in Christchurch to work on the relief effort - and is expected to stay at the Araiteuru marae in Kaikorai Valley for about 10 to 15 days.
Their break in Dunedin was organised by Immigration Services. It is understood another group of Bhutanese from Christchurch has been transferred to Auckland.
Ganga Monger (28) said the people in the group had all originally come from Bhutan, but many had spent more than a decade as refugees in Nepal.
She resettled in Christchurch 2 years ago, but many in the group had lived in Christchurch for less than six months.
Many of Christchurch's Bhutanese had badly damaged homes, and were stressed by ongoing aftershocks and just wanted to get away for a time, she said.
Many, also, as with other ethnic communities from the city, including the Afghani community, were greatly concerned about predictions that another big earthquake would strike Christchurch on March 20.
She said families wanted to stay away from the city until at least after that date.
"We want to escape from the big one."
Chris Maxwell, from He Waka Kotuia o Araiteuru, said the collective was originally expecting just 20 people from Christchurch, but that number had swelled to 85 by the time the group arrived.
