GEOGRAPHY students at Tavistock College welcomed a guest speaker from 12,000 miles away this month.

Ian Stewart, originally from Cornwall but now living in Christchurch, New Zealand, visited classes in the geography department to talk about living in an active zone, where they get 10,000 quakes a year.

Mr Stewart discussed with the classes about the experiences he had in the earthquakes and how daily life was affected as a consequence. He showed them DVD clips of the devastation and highlighted the re-building, as well as telling personal stories of the tragedy.

Tierney Dower, a year 13 student, said: 'Hearing Mr Stewart's first-hand experiences of living in an earthquake prone zone was really fascinating as this allowed us to realise what living in a disaster area was really like and how lucky we are to live in this country. It also allowed us to see how people in these situations deal with these occurrences on a daily basis.'

Mean Carr added: 'It isn't very often that a student studying A2 geography gets the opportunity to meet someone who has experienced many of the things that we have been studying.

'It has helped me to realise the severity of the impacts that the regular events of earthquakes can have on people and how they deal with these occurrences.'