Huge quake rocks southern New Zealand

A huge earthquake rocked southern New Zealand early today, authorities said. It rattled houses and hotels but caused no injuries or major damage in the mountainous and sparsely populated region.

One resident said her house shook “like a blade of grass in the wind” as the quake measuring 7.1 on the Richter scale rattled the picturesque farming and tourism area of South Island’s Fjordland.

Its epicentre was about 12 miles under the Earth’s surface off the coast of Fjordland, a rugged region of craggy, snow-capped mountains and pristine coastal inlets, which draw hundreds of thousands of tourists each year.

The New Zealand Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences reported hundreds of aftershocks, one with a magnitude of 6.2.

The quake shook parts of Sydney, Australia, some 1,330 miles away. Guests on the upper floors of Sydney airport’s Hilton Hotel said they felt the tremors.

Twelve hours after the quake, which lasted up to three minutes, emergency services reported a large rock slide had blocked a road, but no other major damage. A group of 60 schoolchildren camping near a lake was cut off by the slide but police said they were in no danger.

The quake rattled the tourist town of Te Anau.

Vivienne Duncan, manager of Te Anau Lakefront Backpackers hotel, said residents were still in a “state of shock”.

“You’re lying in bed, get a bit of a shudder and you wait for it to subside thinking that’s it. But it just grew in intensity and didn’t stop ... the whole house was moving like a blade of grass in the wind,” she said.

The Quality Hotel in Te Anau reported bottles, glasses and even television sets smashed onto guest room floors. Terrified guests rushed down to the foyer where staff calmed them, said night porter Carl Koning.

Guest Ray Poynter said the quake started with a loud bang, which shook his room.

“Then everything was shaking back and forth and it went on for such a long time, it just didn’t stop,” he said.

Local residents reported damage to crockery and glassware, electric power cuts and phone service disruption.

Seismologist Ken Gledhill said the quake “went on for a long time. These are the kind of quakes that make the Earth ring”.

The quake was the same magnitude as a 1968 shake on South Island’s West Coast, in which three people were killed.

Residents were “very, very lucky” the quake had hit a sparsely populated area, as “an earthquake of this size near a population centre could cause a lot of damage”, Mr Gledhill said.

Fiordland, which includes the World Heritage-listed Milford Sound fjord, is one of the most seismically active parts of New Zealand, said seismologist Warwick Smith.

“On average, New Zealand can expect an earthquake of magnitude 7 or greater about once a decade and a magnitude 8 once every century,” he said.

About 14,000 earthquakes hit New Zealand each year. Between 100 and 150 are big enough to be felt.