Back on track to remember earthquake
Rebecca Little has had an interesting history with Christchurch’s Rapaki Track.
She was walking alone on the popular trail when the February 2011 earthquake struck, throwing her to the ground and sending boulders hurtling towards her from further up in the Port Hills.
Little said she ‘‘totally lost [her] mind’’ in the hour after the quake – ‘‘I didn’t think I was going to get off that hill’’.
But since then, she has tried to walk the track five days a week and every February she heads to Victoria Park to take part in A Run to Remember, an event honouring the 185 people who lost their lives during the earthquake.
Little will be back on the starting line when the event returns tomorrow. Entering was a way for her to heal, she said.
Since she started entering the events, she has lost 17 kilograms and has participated in a variety of challenges, including two half marathons in Christchurch.
Little said she thought about the quake and looked up every time she was on Rapaki Track.
She was heading around a bend on her way down the track when the quake struck.
‘‘The next thing I’m lying on my back. I felt like I’d been shaken off the track. I look over at town and there’s nothing. It’s just dust. There’s no buildings.’’
Little said she could see boulders bouncing down the hill, so she huddled against the side of the track. One boulder landed on the trail nearby.
‘‘I was screaming my lungs out the entire way down. As I’m running, it looked as though the track was actually splitting open. It looked like steam coming out. It must have just been dust.’’
When she got to the bottom, some ‘‘kind people’’ put her in the back of their car and took her to her children’s school. She had lost her car keys and was in no state to drive.
‘‘[I was] completely freaked out. I didn’t think I was going to get off that hill.’’
Seven years on, Little’s memories of the day remain vivid, but she still loved that track.
‘‘Rapaki Track kind of transformed my life,’’ she said.