Former Pokolbin woman Charlotte Matthews caught in Christchurch earthquake

The 7.8 magnitude earthquake, which hit just after midnight, left two people dead.

Charlotte Matthews, who lived in Pokolbin for 22 years, was asleep in her Christchurch home when the earthquake hit and suffered a second quake later while at work.

She was woken up on Monday morning by the house shaking.

“It's a weird sensation,” she said. “It shook from side to side then started rolling.”

Ms Matthews said the shaking lasted about three to five minutes, but felt like it went forever.

She said she was worried that the quake wouldn’t stop.

“My heart was pounding,” she said.

“My thoughts were, why did we move here? Will it stop soon or will it get worse?

“It was loud, I could could hear doors creaking, but I didn't hear anything fall over.”

The damage was luckily just a single photo frame, which was less than the photo frames, vases and pantry items that fell during the 5.7 magnitude Valentine’s Day quake.

Ms Matthews eventually got back to sleep, but she said there were aftershocks straight away.

She woke up the next morning and heard the tsunami alarm, despite being about 13 kilometres from the beach.

When Ms Matthews arrived at Christchurch Hospital, where she works as a paediatric nurse, she said everyone was tired.

“Many people were up for hours, some had been evacuated so slept in their car,” she said.

Another earthquake hit whilst she was having lunch.

“We all stood under the door frames in the corridor watching the clock hanging from the ceiling swaying, whilst we were feeling pretty sea sick as the building swayed,” she said. 

“There is an amazing team work and togetherness feeling when it happens but it's so scary!”

Ms Matthews, who has lived in Christchurch for three years, said the area goes through phases of feeling earthquakes.

“I had only recently been thinking that we hadn't felt one for a while,” she said.

“It's always on your mind when the next one might hit.”