Super Liquor Kawerau finds ‘thousands of dollars’ of stock smashed after earthquakes rock Bay of Plenty

A “few thousand dollars” of stock was found on the floor of Super Liquor Kawerau after a swarm of earthquakes rocked the region at the weekend. Photo / Supplied

A “few thousand dollars” of broken bottles of spirits, wine, and beer on the floor was what a Bay of Plenty bottle store employee found when she arrived to work the morning after a swarm of earthquakes rocked the region at the weekend.

Residents reported feeling “jolting” and shaking on social media after GeoNet recorded more than 332 earthquakes since the early hours of Saturday morning.

The first was a magnitude 3.4 tremor at 3.29am. It was 3km deep and 25km southwest of Whakatāne, near Kawerau.

The biggest quake was a magnitude 4.8 at 4.46am, while another was a magnitude 4.6.

Super Liquor Kawerau assistant manager Nicole Harris said the shop lost at least “a few thousand dollars” in stock. Broken bottles of spirits, wine and beer littered the floor when she arrived at 7.30am.

“I knew being a bottle store that we were going to have a bit of a clean-up but I didn’t quite predict this much damage.”

The clean-up had been hampered by more shakes that knocked more things over.

“It’s pretty scary, my heart is ticking and I’ve spoken to my family and friends and they are all scared too,” she said on Saturday morning.

Geonet said the “swarm” of earthquakes was in a similar area to swarms that occurred in 2018 and 2019.

“Feeling earthquakes close together in time can be unsettling, but this is typical activity for the area...”

Its team was “keeping an eye on things”, it said.

A “few thousand dollars” of stock was found on the floor of Super Liquor Kawerau after a swarm of earthquakes rocked the region at the weekend. Photo / Supplied

Abbie Dodds said it had been a very intense night with “three good long and strong ones with about 90 more slow wobbly shakes and short sharp jolts”.

“A lot of my neighbours made their way out onto the driveways. There was quite a bit of damage to house contents in my home with crockery smashed etc.”

It was a “wild morning”, she said.

Kiri Schindler said she had felt more than 50 quakes in Kawerau that started at 3.30am when she was “shaken awake” and some were “very strong”.

Schindler said the earthquakes could be heard before the shake happened and a few things had fallen over and broken in her house. She said it was a little scary and bought back memories when she was a child from the Edgecumbe earthquake.

Kendall Budd said there were a lot of small quakes “almost nose to tail”.

Budd said she could hear “continuous rumbling” and water spilled out of fish tanks that she had to siphon out at 4am.

Her animals were “beside themselves” and her dogs wanted to jump into the shower with her that morning, she said.

Residents on the Whakatāne Notice Board Facebook page said the quakes felt bigger than the official recorded magnitudes.

“Whoa felt way bigger, the house was rocking hard out,” one said.

“Being shallow we feel it more”, another said, while a third person said it was “quite scary” and they were “still feeling mild aftershocks later on Saturday morning.

A “few thousand dollars” of stock was found on the floor of Super Liquor Kawerau after a swarm of earthquakes rocked the region at the weekend. Photo / Supplied