How to do relief work in New Zealand?

General consensus on the radio broadcasts over here is to stay out of Christchurch and let the services do their jobs.
Red cross are taking donations, people with essential equipment are however welcome. For example there are people coming into town with their personal generators and giving people a chance to charge cell phones and boil water etc, similarly people who own small excavators are able to help out by clearing debris from pathways and creating latrines.

But what the rest of NZ that have no specialist skills or equipment are encouraged to do is to donate and if possible offer a room in your house to give people of CHC the opportunity to get away from it all and mentally collect themselves.

@the_sherpa , You should still come visit NZ, she is paradise on earth and the people are pretty awesome too. (well the south-Islanders are, haha)

Odysseus has it correct about staying out of Christchurch if possible… I work for a local authority in the South Island and the message we are giving is that the damaged infrastructure is really struggling to cope with those resident in the city already, so extra visitors to the city, however well intentioned, can cause further strain on limited resources…

However ,perhaps if you were to stay outside of the city, but within driving distance (eg Ashburton?) and you could find accommodation (local towns are pretty much at capacity for accommodation through people fleeing Christchurch), then maybe you could volunteer at http://www.sva.org.nz/help/offer/ which is the University of Canterbury’s Student Army. They are working mainly clearing rubble and silt. You would need to take your own wheelbarrow etc as lack of wheelbarrows is really slowing the work.

Awesome that you want to help – I am sure that if you can’t help with manual work, a donation of dollars to the Red Cross or maybe to a foodbank in Christchurch or local towns would be very welcome! :-)

@Odysseus Hey, nothing wrong with those of us in the North Island lol

I’m in Auckland & the vibe I get from the news are Hospitality/Travel areas in Christchurch are wanting people to go there. Motels are wanting visitors simply because they are getting so many cancellations. Many of them have running water and electricity. The govt is generally wanting people to still use Christchurch Airport as a gateway to New Zealand or at atleast connecting flights.

Thanks so much for all the info, guys, this is really helpful!
D