Christchurch earthquake: Survival show presenter offers a few tips

Bear Grylls. Photo / Supplied

Bear Grylls, extreme adventurer and host of the survival show Man vs Wild, was filming in New Zealand when the earthquake struck.

The 36-year-old English television presenter and his team were in mountains about 240km southwest of Christchurch when they were shaken by the tremor.

"Actually, when it hit I was trying to cross a big river gorge on this old mining wire that spanned it. I was kind of in the middle of it and the crew were on the bank ... The whole thing was kind of shaking around," he told CNN. "But I got to the other side and the guy said, 'Man, did you not feel that? The whole ground just started moving'."

Grylls is often thrown into extreme circumstances for his show and instructs viewers on how to survive.

When asked for advice on how to endure an earthquake, he said: "The truth is a lot of it is luck and where you happen to be at the time. If you're inside, you've got to try to get under something; get under a table or a desk. Keep away from the windows. A lot of accidents happen from falling debris, whether it's lights or things on the walls.

"If you're in your vehicle, you want to pull over and stop. But it gets crazy. You've got the dangers of gas leaks, of water and electricity.

"But if you're trapped actually in the debris, you've got to cover your face. You can tap pipes steadily to let rescuers know that you're in there."