Queenstown residents have stepped up to support their Canterbury cousins in the aftermath of the earthquake on Saturday.
New Zealand Red Cross volunteers will travel from the Wakatipu to Christchurch tomorrow to relieve fellow Red Cross volunteers from Dunedin and Blenheim who are staffing welfare centres.
Volunteers from Invercargill and the North Island will also journey to assist.
The Queenstown team is expected to work 12-hour shifts in the 24-hour centres at Addington Raceway, Burnside High School and Linwood College until Sunday.
Red Cross service centre co-ordinator Richard Garden, of Queenstown, said yesterday he and the team would probably travel by air to the city to be fresh for welfare support work on arrival.
Mr Garden said volunteers were "eager to help" and their work would involve the distribution of food, medication and bedding already in the city as required by residents.
Volunteers would also help organise visits to doctors and offer psychological support, in terms of listening to people.
The Salvation Army Queenstown Corps was also ready to assist in the welfare centres and was in contact with the army's divisional headquarters in Christchurch, corps leader Kenneth Walker said yesterday.
"They know we're ready to support. We would have a team of personnel to help with catering at welfare centres. Bedding, clothes, utensils, the basics, would be trucked up as much as possible.
"We're poised to step in to do what we can. We'll wait to receive an indication they need specific help."
Mr Walker said there were several army centres closer to Christchurch than Queenstown.
Wakatipu volunteers were poised to assist, especially if the length of time Christchurch residents were displaced from their homes was prolonged and centre staff needed relieving.
Both the Red Cross and Salvation Army have launched national appeals for donations towards efforts to help those affected in Canterbury.
Donations could be made via their websites, telephone lines or in banks.
