Aftershocks are continuing to follow the big earthquake that shook up Southland last night, and was felt in many other places further afield.
But while it was felt by many, the damage was light.
At 7.8 on the Richter scale, New Zealand's second biggest earthquake on record rolled, rather than shook, and lasted more than a minute. It was centred on a sparsely populated area, but everyone who felt it had a story.
"They thought I'd been pouring them triples, and the motion just kept going and going," says Pat Coats at the Waiau Star hotel. "There was no noise, it was just all a rolling motion."
"Pretty scary, didn't think a house could move so much," says Vicki Harrison of Tuatapere. "Being a grand old house, she shook."
The quake, which began at 9:22pm was only 12km deep and centred under Resolution Island in Dusky Sound. Civil Defence and DoC staff combed the area by air, checking on trampers and looking for landslips.
"Certainly south of Doubtful Sound there are signs of fresh slips, but fortunately for us all our structures seem to be intact, which is great news for us," says DoC's Andrew Cudby.
Those at Deep Cove were among the closest to the quake's centre.
"It was an excellent one to have, because it didn't seem to do any damage but it gave you the excitement and thrill," says caretaker Douglas Falconer. "So that was it, I can go home happy I've had my earthquake experience in Fiordland."
Luckily the Manapouri power station escaped damage, in spite of the quake measuring the same size as Napier's disastrous 1931 earthquake.
Te Anau has been shaken up before - again the damage was minor, amounting to a few broken bottles.
"The worst is fizzy drink and plastic bottles that split everywhere," says Keith Cullen, Te Anau Fresh Choice. "So that's the worst of it, just cleaning up sticky mess."
Last night's shake was bigger than previous ones, and the supermarket continued to sway today.
The quake also hit power and phone services, including an Invercargill suburb, but today there was little apparent damage.
"It was like going on and on, and for a lot of people we thought this was the beginning of the big one, this was it," says mayor Tim Shadbolt.
The quake also caused ripples across the Tasman. Sydney went on tsunami alert and a performance at the Bondi Beach Pavilion was cancelled.
But the wave only measured 17cm, and the warning was soon cancelled.
There have since been seven aftershocks of much lower intensity.
3 News
Dallas Bradley, Hazard Planner from Southland Civil Defence Emergency Management Group speaks to RadioLIVE on the Southland quake.