Here is something I have copied and pasted in from a post I just did for transients'
Facebook Page.
"About nine hours ago, I heard a noise and was awoken by the bed and room shaking. It proceeded to get worse. A 7.5 earthquake was occurring which lasted over a minute. It's the strongest one I have experienced personally, but, it was not that bad here in comparison to other locations around NZ. The epicentre was north of Christchurch inland from Kaikoura. I attached an image with an arrow to indicate approximately where I was during the quake, with the red dot being the location of the quake.
This quake was 30 times more powerful than the
February 2011 Christchurch quake, a 6.3, which killed 185 people and injured several thousand.
Most of New Zealand was awake as coastal sirens started up alerting people of a possible tsunami in most locations on the east coast. The quake was widely felt throughout both the South and North Islands, and has caused severe damage in a number of locations. In one spot near Wellington the water receded up to 200 meters. Kaikoura was hit with a 2 meter wave earlier on. I am yet to hear of any significant news based around these surges of water, however many have headed away from the coasts since midnight.
Two people have lost their lives so far. There have been some very strong aftershocks, especially within the 3-4 hour period straight after the quake. I started getting motion sick as I am sensitive to movement, because of how constantly shaky it was. Power was out and is still out in various areas.
Two people have lost their lives so far. I have attached a few photos of the event in terms of damage from around New Zealand. One is of my cat who kept close to me after the event and fell asleep finally after about two hours."