Quake – March 5

Just a quick update on earthquake and tsunami events today. There is no need to worry about us. We are a long distance from the quakes and the only impact on us was to shake the bed enough to awaken Jim at 2:27 AM. He checked TV1 and Radio NZ and found nothing, so went back to bed. The first quake was a magnitude 7.1 quake off the north east coast of the North Island. We are on the opposite south west coast. Only people on the north and north east coasts received tsunami warnings.

There were two major quakes after that, including an 8.1, but more than 1,000 km father out into the ocean – also to the north east. These triggered tsunami warnings but the resulting impact on New Zealand was relatively minor at 30 cm or so. We did not feel these quakes. The tsunami slogan here is “long and strong, be gone!” New Zealanders know to head for higher ground in the event of a long strong earthquake.

There are predictions of continued aftershocks but the major warnings have expired. You can get more info on the long series of quakes and aftershocks at https://www.geonet.org.nz/earthquake

Some excitement for the day – and enough to change the morning news from COVID to earthquakes and tsunamis.

This afternoon the Prime Minister announced that there have been no new COVID cases in the community for 5 days and that all recent cases and their contacts are in isolation. As of 6 AM Sunday, COVID alert levels will be rolled back to level 2 for Auckland and level 1 for the rest of the country. If there are no new cases over the next week, then the whole country is expected to go back to level 1 next weekend.

We are working on a longer post including photos of our visit to Kapiti Island. Stay tuned!