Christchurch earthquake: Country together as one at 12:51pm

The crowd during the 2 minutes silence at the Octagon in Dunedin. Photo / Otago Daily Times

At 12.51pm yesterday people emerged from homes next to the shattered remains of a row of shops in Merivale and dropped into silence.

Diners sitting outside at the No 4 restaurant stood at their tables, heads down and arms around each other's shoulders.

Outside, three taxi drivers stood outside their cabs and two woman stood hugging, weeping quietly.

People stood looking at the row of shops, its frontage now on the footpath, remembering that same minute one week ago when those shops had toppled and with them much of the heart of wider Christchurch.

It was one street in one suburb, but it was a scene mirrored throughout the country.

In Auckland, hundreds of people stood in the lunchtime heat of Aotea Square. Workers from Queen St office towers, construction site contractors clasping hard-hats, executives in pin-striped suits and visitors to the city shared a moment of quiet reflection after the Town Hall bell rang a single chime at 12.51pm.

Some had lapel stickers bearing the words: "Stand strong Chch".

About 150 city office workers were in St Patrick's Square beside the cathedral where bells rang.

Most were there to observe the silence, among them a worker who paused half-way through downing his pie, a woman immaculate in a red and black dress, a group of young women office workers in black who got to their feet when bells started to ring and an older man standing to attention.

But nowhere was the silence more keenly observed than in Christchurch.

Family of local television personality Donna Manning, who was in the Canterbury Television building which collapsed in the quake, held their two-minute silence near the building site.

Ms Manning's children, Elizabeth and Kent Manning, were among the family members there, and search and rescue staff also paused.

"It was really, really good just to see all those dear people who had come to help all of us," said Ms Manning's brother, Maurice Gardiner.

Nearby, their heads bowed, Prime Minister John Key and his wife Bronagh reached for each other's hands simultaneously. Next to them, Mayor Bob Parker stood like a statue, stoic and with his eyes closed, a pose mirrored behind him by local MP Brendon Burns.

Salvation Army Major Robert Ross lifted a finger to his eye and wiped a tear.

Surrounding them were the workers who have been on the frontlines from the outset, two from each of the international urban search and rescue teams, the council workers, the engineers, the volunteers.

Bishop of Canterbury Victoria Matthews closed the two minutes' silence. "May they rest in peace and rise in glory," she said.

At the airport, some stood with their heads bowed in prayer, others comforted their work colleagues while some, clearly exhausted, stared blankly into space.

Carol Mutch began crying when the silence fell, wondering if her friend's son was among those still to be pulled out of the PGC building.

Back in Merivale, Kendra Street wiped away the tears. She was there with her 1-year-old son Luke and had been visiting her mother-in-law at the nearby Nurse Maude Hospital.

After a week in which "normal is gone", she said, that short silence brought her some relief.

"It's like a week's worth of stress comes out in one go. And with a 1-year-old, you don't get to cry too often because you don't like to cry in front of them."