Hardly been off the news here - lots of Brit/NZ links... Our thoughts are with them... I was working on a TNT site today and the manager is from there - he was over a couple of weeks back - all his family are fine... I had family there back in the 70's but no one now...... not sure if that has changed with Tony mentioning a 27 storey building...
NZ is directly on the fault lines that make up the Pacific "ring of fire" and iirc, Christchurch is directly on a junction point where two "faults" become one and continue south...
From what I remember from my cousins before they moved out of the area was that tall buildings were rare in NZ for the simple reason that it is a country prone to quakes... Tony... over to you...?
(official death toll is now 113)
