About 12:02am it hit and centred a long way away from where I am,,reports indicate a 7.5,really intense and long lasting,reports vary from 1-2 minutes,we are now getting aftershocks often and really makes me sick to the stomach TBO.
I live in the south island of New Zealand and some of you will may remember a major town down south got totally wasted after 2 major shakes in (I think) 2011.
The whole deal with these is there is nothing u can do really,in a storm you batten up the doors and windows,sandbag your driveway and /or move to higher ground,earthquakes offer little or no warning a shake or total destruction.
I think that the California members on here can relate to this you have a similar problem.
Reports coming are not got @ this stage but loss of life is minimal thank god.

I thought we had some members there but couldn't remember who. Glad you and yours are OK.

Glad to hear you are okay! Hope no more large aftershocks!

Glad to hear that you are okay.
Stay safe.

Don't F with mother nature. If you need to run, run. We have family friends whose parents died in Indonesia from the Tsunami. Take care, and hopefully you and your loved ones are safe.

So glad you and your family are safe. And that you weren't under the car when it hit.

Prayers are with you, your family, friends and neighbors. Living in the SF Bay Area my whole life I am more than familiar with the feeling of major earthquakes. Very un-nerving.

Thanks for the kind words, all I got a small crack in the kitchen wall that's all, we received around 6.6 apparently closer area's got the full impact of 7.5,I curse the fact I live by the beach and my house is build on concrete on top of sand at times (sand gets everywhere),however there is no question it dulls the jolts somewhat....less damage.
Friends in the nearby city report the jolts were very abrupt and stuff falling over .
We have had so many aftershocks its hard to count since the main shake....just got another as typing this reply...sucks,frequency is 3 minutes to around 35 but very contant.
I know I won't sleep well tonight as you kind of wait in a half sleep for the next one ...... .

good luck over there. Luckily the tsunami was not as bad as it could have been. Take care and I hope it will not get more worse than a cracked kitchenwall for you !

Take care and stay safe!

My wife just told me we have two friends in New Zealand for the past two weeks....hope they are OK too.

Best wishes from Napa, CA where we had our big shake a little over 2 years ago. This is a picture of what I got to deal with.
Click to view attachment

Good luck. Its not called the Shaky Isles for nothing.

If they are in the north island they will be ok travel wise,in the south island they may be stuck if travelling by road,the passenger ferries that go between the islands aren't sailing,from the top of the south the rail link and the coastal and inland highways are out,possibly not reopening for many weeks/months due to massive damage.

Saw a video of the east coast coastal highway,sections of train track have been picked up and thrown into the sea....unreal.
The government is looking at shipping supplys into the main lower centres that are isolated by road and rail,many people are running out of essential food supplies and drinking water.
Click to view attachment
Click to view attachment

Wow Dean, glad your safe. Hope Mother Nature calms down for you.

Wow! That is serious. Hopefully the government gets their game together quickly to restore essentials.

Wow is right. Those pics are incredible.

Cairo thanks ,after the tragic events of 2011 in the south island city of Christchurch the government are very quick to act on these disasters,just read they have a temporary link open on an inland route so the 2 halfs of the island are now linked with road transport,people stranded in the remote area's air being airlifted out,the interisland ferries are anchored in the bay in our north island capital city Wellington,the loading ramps and roads to them are badly damaged so they can't dock to discharge freight.
Pic below shows one of the ferry loading ramp snapped in half.
Click to view attachment
Heavier aftershocks are now gone so we just get the small ones which are getting harder to notice.

Just heard from our friends - they left New Zealand the day before the earthquake. Thank God they are home and all right. They will be over for Thanksgiving - can't wait.

Call me the next time that happens Steve. Me, Ravi and Cesar will come on up and drain a couple of those Cab barrels to help out.

What a horrific disaster for you and your countrymen. One can only hope you stay safe and that critical services and are restored as quickly as possible. Our thoughts are with all of you.

Again thanks all for the kind words,honestly my heart goes out to fellow New Zealanders who have lost property ,buildings and in the longterm their income,very sad,the worse effected area is almost solely dependant on tourism,with little or no roads in the outlook is very bleack for their future.
For example the most effected area is a place called Kaikoura which is a farming/fishing town,population 2000 people,the airforce are airlifting 700 stranded oversea's visitors out as we speak.
The Navy is bringing in warships to ferry local people aboard from the shore how have little left.
The government has looked @ the situation and have acted very quickly,its great cause all the BS infighting go's away and they earn their huge taxpayer funded wages .
I have finally had some contact from an old longtime surf buddy who lives in the area and his wife are ok,started surfing @ 15yrs old and spent many great times there surfing world class waves,holds a place in my heart for sure.

Thoughts and prayers from California for those affected there.

We were looking at some of the ground failures there at my work today. Sobering from my downtown Los Angeles office.

The current news now is of the amateur meteorologist that predicted the quake a week before it happened.
Look-up Frankie MacDonald on YouTube. Lucky guess???

Glad you are OK!!! At least with rain, snow, tornados, hurricanes there is some type of warning!