By Emma Joliff and Juliet Speedy
All of New Zealand's coast was on tsunami alert for much of the day with particular fears for low lying areas on the East Coast.
While many people complied with authorities' orders to flee to higher ground, some were more brazen in their defiance.
At Long Bay, on the North Shore, visitors to the beach were turned back by rangers and police were warning people of the potential danger at Mission Bay.
But fishermen were undeterred.
“There seem to be a lot of these tsunami warnings but nothing really eventuates so we're just going to head out,” said fisherman Matthew Connolly.
A half marathon on Auckland's waterfront was cancelled, prompting a terse response from the organiser.
“We're pretty disappointed,” says Malcolm Wade. “On behalf of 2000 people, and it's a personal comment, not the club's comment, but I believe Civil Defence have panicked and over-reacted.”
At the nearby Port, all commercial vessels were evacuated – including the Dawn Princess cruise ship – they were taken to deeper water as a precaution.
In Wellington, police and a helicopter were warning visitors to the South Coast to move to higher ground.
Emergency staff were on high alert overnight at the National Crisis Management Centre in the Beehive bunker
The first wave hit just after 7am.
“We've had advice that the Chathams had a huge surge, and this is a huge volume of water – not just a wave,” John Carter said.
“The first one was 20 centimetres, the second we're told was a metre. This is serious.”
He urged people to take the warnings seriously and stay away from the coast.
“We saw the loss of life in Samoa, it could happen here if people nosey-park at the beaches.”
Emergency services patrolled the northern end of the harbour at Petone and blocked access to the beach.
While some were more light hearted about the alert and took the opportunity for an early morning dip after a mass nude photo shoot was cancelled.
“We've still got about half an hour, we've got plenty of run-off area up there, and we'll be running,” says Paul Taylor.
But by mid-afternoon, the Ministry of Civil Defence downgraded its warning to an advisory and it was back to business for Wellington's beach goers.
But Civil Defence says surges and sea level changes are likely to continue for up to 24 hours.
There has been some concern expressed to 3 News about alert fatigue and whether people will take notice of warnings if we keep being alerted of tsunami danger but nothing eventuates.
But the Minister says there was a real threat and if they hadn't reacted in the way they did lives could have been lost.
He urges people to always heed the warnings.
In the South Island there was initial panic on Banks Peninsula where many families fled low lying houses first thing this morning.
Other areas near the sea moved out of their homes while the warnings were in place.
Okain’s Bay campsite had to evacuate over 100 people at 6.15 am.
A family from Chile were relocated from their site while trying desperately to get hold of family.
“Because we are stuck here we don't have access to call them or maybe get more information from internet,” Alexis Chavez said.
Further round on the peninsula in Purau, other families were evacuating.
“In the 60's our house was flooded by a tsunami that had the same reason – from the earthquake in Chile – so we were quite worried,” Bina Kilse said.
But it didn't stop local fisherman going out.
“They reckon the first one won't be too high, so plans are straight up the hill if there's any issues,” said one fisherman.
Local authorities had other ideas.
Down in Dunedin, police tried to warn people and clear the beach – even taping it off.
But there was no stopping some surfers.
Back at Sumner Beach, while plenty came for a look, others evacuated to higher ground.
In Lyttelton there was no action for most of the morning, but many boaties secured their ships or moved them out into the harbour.
Then a few hours later, the water started receding.
At midday at Lyttelton Harbour the water dramatically dropped by nearly a metre, causing boats to rest on their keels.
But like most other places, there was no major damage.
Late this afternoon, even if the surges of water hadn't completely died out, any panic had.
3 News