A message has been sent to Japanese officials on behalf of the Queenstown Lakes District community following last week’s earthquake and resulting tsunami, Mayor Vanessa van Uden said.

“We have a significant Japanese community in our district and are very aware that many will have been touched by the tragic events that have unfolded in their homeland,” she said. ‘We have also played host over the years to many thousands of Japanese visitors and are thinking of them and everybody else who has suffered as a result of the disaster.”

The Council had opened a Book of Remembrance for people who wished to send their sympathies. “This will be available for people to sign in both Queenstown and Wanaka before it is presented to the Japanese Embassy to be passed on,” said Ms van Uden.   

Council chief executive Debra Lawson said it was appropriate that everybody, locals and visitors alike, had an opportunity to offer their personal condolences.

“Like many people in the Queenstown Lakes, I have family in Japan,” said Ms Lawson. “The events of the last few days have brought home the importance of bringing people together to show their respect.”

“The Christchurch earthquake has given us all an insight into how a disaster affects not just a community but a whole country and we are thinking of the people of Japan at this time,” Ms Lawson said.

The Book of Remembrance would be available to be signed at the QLDC’s Queenstown office in Gorge Road until 5pm Tuesday 22 March, 2011. It would then move to the Wanaka office in Ardmore Street until Wednesday 30 March, 2011

 

By: Jo Blick