By Janika ter Ellen
New Zealand's Civil Defence tried a first for the country today - a nationwide earthquake drill.
Over a million people registered online to take part, but final figures are yet to be released on how many followed through.
At Wellington Airport people were keen to do the drill and at 9:26am the entire foodcourt dropped, covered, and held.
Passenger Jean Lean thought it was a good idea to take part.
“Given the recent Christchuch earthquakes I think there's a raised awareness of earthquakes and the damage they can cause so I think it's important that we all did that.”
During the Civil Defence drill, people were asked to cover themselves and stay put as if the earthquake were real.
Civil Defence and Emergency Management spokesman John Hamilton says people need to practice the actions.
“We want it to be drilled into people so that it's an automatic response so you avoid those terrible scenes you see in some places where people do try and run outside and risk themselves being injured.”
Over the next two weeks Civil Defence will be surveying about 1.3 million people who registered online for the event to find out whether they followed through.
Some at Wellington Airport preferred to sit back and watch others do the drill, and in Christchurch, 3 News didn't find anyone taking part.
Central City Business Association manager Paul Lonsdale says Christchurch people already know what to do in an earthquake.
“I think that we are all well-versed in the EQ drills,” he says. “I can understand why Wellington went all out because as I say our shake-ups down here have shaken up the rest of the country.”
3 News