Christchurch earthquake: Power is still out for some

Rubble on Christchurch streets after the 7.1 earthquake. Photo / Getty Images

Mum-of-two Karyn White faced an unnerving night of aftershocks in the dark - one of the 10 per cent of people in Christchurch without power.

White was left in her Tai Tapu home without electricity and with only the sitting room fire to heat the house.

As more aftershocks hit, tealight candles lit the room where the family were clustered for warmth and comfort.

"It was quite frightening."

White feared a fire breaking out if a large aftershock came through.

"It's a bit freaky with the candles going ... we've got the fire extinguisher handy!

"We're going to cook on the barbie, but I think we've lost our appetite," she said.

"We've got an open fire, so we're still nice and warm.

"When it happened this morning we were in darkness. It was so violent. Everything started smashing, we were screaming out to the children."

Orion chief executive Roger Sutton said the remaining power would be restored to residents in the morning, and, rather than there being large areas of outage, there were "pockets" of outage spread throughout the city.