Lynda Chanwai-Earle meets Red Cross and local legend Margaret Rankin. An Eastbourne resident, Margaret will never forget one of the worst storms ever to hit our coasts. Witnessing the sinking of the Wahine in 1968, Margaret was determined that her community would be prepared for any disaster in the future.

"We have seven fundamental principles that guide us in all that we do, whether it's delivering a meal in Rotorua or providing medical help to a family in Syria. These principles are our lifeline, connecting us with the Red Cross Red Crescent Movement and the 187 National Societies throughout the world."

- The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement

The Red Cross in New Zealand is currently celebrating its centenary and right now helping the people of Vanuatu.

"New Zealand Red Cross has been part of the fabric of our country for nearly a century. In 1914, at the start of the First World War (WWI), ad hoc Red Cross groups began raising money and sending medical supplies to New Zealand troops overseas. During the wartime effort for both WWI and the Second World War (WWII), New Zealand Red Cross groups worked in conjunction with the Order of St John as a joint council."

Our own Civil Defence movement also grew out of the work of the Red Cross. The fundamental principles include humanity, impartiality, neutrality, independence, voluntary service, unity and universality.

They're certainly values that Eastbourne resident Margaret Rankine grew up with. Her father and mother were both deeply involved in the war effort during the 1940's and after finishing school at Queen Margaret's she decided to go into nursing.

Margaret became a VAD (Volunteer Aid Detachment) with the Red Cross and it was here she did her training, including in hospitals. Margaret met and fell in love with a likeminded man in her late husband Ian Rankine. Both were heavily involved with Red Cross work when they bought their family property in York Bay, Eastbourne, with its fantastic panoramic view of Wellington Harbour.

Young Margaret Rankine (centre) as a Red Cross VAD (Volunteer Aid Detachment)

This was the dream home for Margaret, Ian and their two young children but then early one morning on the 10th April 1968, as the family prepared for a normal working day they became witnesses of one of the worst storms ever to hit New Zealand's coasts. Two violent weather fronts merged over Wellington to create the extreme extratropical cyclone conditions of the Wahine storm…

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details