Never has a trip to the loo been more timely. Wendy Pearce credits the decision to go to the toilet with saving her life in Samoa when the tsunami hit the village of Lalomanu on the south coast of Samoa on Wednesday.
Mrs Pearce, of Christchurch, whose son Regan lives in Queenstown, told the Otago Daily Times from Apia yesterday it was "pure luck" anyone survived.
She and two friends arrived in Samoa on Saturday (NZ time), planning to spend a week at Lalomanu on holiday.
"To think we were so stupid to have an earthquake [and say], `That's tsunami material.'"
Ten minutes after the earthquake, the tsunami hit.
"Everyone was getting out and I thought, `I'll go to the toilet.'"It saved my life.
"I was on the toilet, right below the rock-face, when the water crashed into the bure.
"It was like thunder."
Natural instincts kicked in and she began to run for her life, Mrs Pearce said.
While they were running towards the rock-face, Mrs Pearce grabbed the hand of a little girl who was looking for her mother and father.
She turned around and saw the Nelson woman trip and fall, and she and her husband were swept away.
She has not seen them since.
"A lot jumped into cars.
"One woman from Wellington jumped on to the back of a ute. Waves landed on them and they got swept out to sea.
"It was like a washing machine.
"The third time she came up for air, she said, `Take me Lord, take me.'"She ended up in hospital and doesn't know how she got there.
"It's pure luck that anyone could get out."
Mrs Pearce and others began scaling the rock-face, hanging on to tree roots.
"We got up there and everyone started yelling, `There's another one coming. Get higher.'"I thought, `I can't,' but you just do."
Mrs Pearce said she had lost "everything".
"I've got nothing. I've lost absolutely everything . . . except a piece of material.
"I don't care that I've lost everything; at least we're alive."
Alexandra woman Ngaire Woodward (60) was on the "trip of a lifetime" with good friend Jill Barron, when they were woken by the earthquake.
They were pushed through the wall of their fale and into another by the force of the subsequent tsunami.
Mrs Barron organised the trip to celebrate Mrs Woodward's 60th birthday, and as a reunion for the two friends, who met while living in Alexandra.
They were staying at Litia Sini resort in Lalomanu.
Mrs Woodward's son Nathan said he had spoken on the telephone to Mrs Barron, who described the pair's ordeal.
"They were woken at 7am by the earthquake and got out of bed to see what was happening.
"The lagoon out the front of their fale looked fine, but beyond that, where the sea was, there was a white wall of water coming towards them.
"They got smashed through the wall of their fale and into another one out the back," he said.
The family did not know how the pair - who lost everything but the clothes they were wearing - managed to make it to the capital, Apia.
Mrs Barron was "black and blue", but had no broken bones, and was staying at the New Zealand High Commission in Apia while Mrs Woodward was in hospital with a broken pelvis.
"After the initial tsunami, we got a text message from an unknown number saying `all well'.
"Mum must have found someone with a phone and asked them to let us know she was OK," Nathan said.
Mrs Woodward's husband Mike and three of their children, Nathan and Larissa Woodward and Tonia McGregor, gathered at the family home in Alexandra and tried desperately to make contact with authorities in Samoa.
The couple's fourth child - son Gavin McLeay - is in Invercargill.
"None of us have really slept or eaten much since it happened.
"It could have been worse, though. At least we know she is being looked after, but it's hard not to feel helpless," Larissa said.
The two women were due to fly back to New Zealand next week, but with a broken pelvis it could be weeks before Mrs Woodward can be moved.
"If I have to go over, I will.
"We are just waiting to see what happens," Mr Woodward said.
"With a broken pelvis she has to stay flat on her back."
