Jetskiers watched 5.7 quake from water

It had been almost five years since Geoff Horn and his partner left Christchurch in the aftermath of the February earthquake.

The irony was not lost on them as they sat in the middle of a rolling ocean on Sunday afternoon during a fleeting return home, watching cliffs rain down around them.

Horn and his partner had been back in Canterbury just a couple of days on Sunday, with American friend Jonathan Williams in tow.

They had ventured south from Auckland to show Williams around their hometown.

The move north was not due to post-earthquake trauma, but for Horn to ‘‘maintain a client base’’ in the IT industry.

On Sunday, the trio decided to hire jetskis and head out around the coast. It was just after 1pm, as the group were on their return leg around Scarborough, when the cliffs started moving.

‘‘All of a sudden it looked like the cliffs just floated. I thought everything was on fire – it looked like a giant burning cloud, but then everyone else knew it was an earthquake,’’ Williams said.

‘‘We were in the water – we had no idea how big it was.’’

While memories were fresh in the mind of Horn and his partner, their concern immediately turned to others.

‘‘We’re well past the point of being scared over earthquakes. It’s more the nerves and being concerned for friends and family. We were stuck out in the water and [wanting to] be there for them.’’

Smith provided a phone for the couple to contact family, their ‘‘minds were put at ease’’.

Although Williams, who is from Los Angeles, was not fazed by the earthquakes, he said seeing one on New Zealand shores had been ‘‘kinda cool to watch’’.

‘‘I’ve been in a tonne of earthquakes. But I’ve never been in a city that has been devastated by one.

‘‘It’s a very different experience watching the people from here react to an earthquake than people from where I’m from.’’