[Matt Smith]

Been watching it on TV here in Auckland NZ all morning. My wife's brother lives in Christchurch so she's been talking to him on the (very poor) cellphone coverage at the moment

Looks like carnage throughout the city. Christchurch has lots of historic buildings in it and many brick buildings have partially collapsed. Civil Defence just declared a state of emergency a couple of minutes ago. Power/water is out in most of the city, thankfully not too many injuries yet. Sewerage pipes ruptured, roads split up etc. Lots more coverage of the surrounding areas coming in now and it's not looking very pretty.

I'd say this is the biggest event we've had in a major New Zealand city to date. Negative 2 degrees celcius tonight and no power. Lots of houses have lost thier chimneys- hypothermia a real issue. Hang in there Christchurch.