New Zealand is known as a land full of natural beauty.

Its picturesque scenery is why students like sophomores Sam Beecher and Jack Caywood wanted to study abroad there.

However, what some people might not be aware of is New Zealand’s ability to create natural disasters. But after the 6.3-magnitude earthquake that hit Christchurch on Feb. 22, it hasn’t taken long for people to find this out.

Beecher and Caywood arrived in New Zealand several weeks before the earthquake hit. They are both studying at the University of Otago in Dunedin this semester, which is about three hours away from Christchurch.

“There’s been a lot of crazy stuff going on the first couple weeks I’ve been here, so hopefully all the bad stuff’s gone out of the way,” Beecher said via Skype. “I’ve never experienced an earthquake or been anywhere close to an earthquake, so this is definitely something new for me.”

This is the second earthquake Christchurch has experienced in the past few months and is being considered one of the worst disasters in New Zealand’s history, with the death toll continuing to rise as it approached 200 as of Wednesday.

Even though some people in Dunedin felt the aftershock of the earthquake, both Beecher and Caywood were asleep during the earthquake and didn’t feel it at all.

Some of Caywood’s family also lives in New Zealand, but they too were unaffected by the earthquake, while one of his professors in Dunedin was in Christchurch when it happened and was the scariest ten seconds of his life.

Even though Caywood and Beecher are staying in New Zealand for a few more months, Caywood said he isn’t worried about the chance another earthquake might hit closer to home, despite the city of Dunedin being on a fault line itself.

“I’m not the type of person that thinks of things like that,” he said via Skype. “If it’s going to happen, it’s going to happen. There’s nothing I’m going to be able to do about it.”

Neither Beecher nor Caywood had a chance to visit Christchurch before the earthquake hit, but Beecher said he did have plans to travel there at some point while he is in New Zealand.

 ”I still hope to make my way there,” he said. “It just might not be for the same purposes of just traveling around.”

Beecher would now like the chance to go and help out by doing volunteer work over one of the weekends he is there.

Baker University alumna Brandi Dority also is hoping she will be able to help out in Christchurch. Dority studied abroad in New Zealand in 2009 and considers this country “heaven on earth.”

While she stayed mostly in Hamilton, she did visit Christchurch.

“It was a really pretty city,” she said. “It’s one of the more historical cities, so it had a lot of pretty historical buildings around.”

Dority had actually planned on going back there in December, however, it ended up not working out for her to do so, but she said she could have very well been in the area during the earthquake.

Since she couldn’t go in December, and because of the recent destruction to Christchurch, Dority is planning a trip there in May for anywhere from six months to a year.

“I want to go back now and help, because … that’s me,” she said. “I’m trying to figure out a way to get down to Christchurch and help how I can … I’m not a medic or anything, but I can find something, I think. So hopefully that happens in May.”