A night to remember in Wellington, NZ

I'd planned to go to bed at a reasonable hour tonight (didn't happen) seeing as though I had an unexpectedly late night last night. No it wasn't down to a few too many beers or a late night soiree in a dimly lit cocktail bar (I'm thinking of the Hawthorn Lounge in Wellington there, somewhere I could easily imagine finding myself in the early hours of any morning given half the chance). No, I finally got to bed around 3am last night after an unexpectedly extended google-chat with Lynndypops, unexpectedly long thanks to my first NZ 'quake experience! The effects were not major, thankfully for everyone, and it was quite a few hundred km offshore NE from the north island, 6.6 in magnitude according to USGS, but to have felt the effects here in this building in Wellington was really quite incredible, for a 'quake newbie like myself at least.  

I have felt earthquake effects before, back in 2002 I think it was, at home in the UK in Chapel-en-le-Frith, epicentre in the Midlands somewhere, 4.5 I seem to remember or something like. The house quivering woke me up that time but this time this building properly shook and swayed pretty obviously for a good number of seconds, maybe not quite 10 seconds but it was close. Being on the 6th floor of an apartment block probably helped enhance the swaying and shaking (nothing fell off shelves though to give it some perspective), it wasn't that severe. 

So Lynndypops was privvy to my 'oh my god, this building just shook' exclamation (of course I used those words) and my 'surely that wasn't just the wind' questioning, after which we spent a while looking on Twitter, USGS, geonet, etc. for confirmation that it was indeed a tremor, how big it was, where it originated, etc. and yes, the wonder of the internet confirmed everything in just a matter of seconds. The checking and g-chatting then went on for a while until I finally managed to drag myself away to bed, next to which I now keep my bag with credit card and passport safely enclosed.  I know it's something you get used to if you live here, or somewhere with a similar frequency of tremors (I don't need to mention Japan and Chile, they're already in peoples' conciousness), but for me it was the kind of excitement I could do without just before bed time.

If I was amazed by the effects of the tremor, I was also amazed by the speed and amount of internet comment on it.

A stable Wellington at sundown from the current blog epicentre