British Foreign Secretary William Hague has made touring the Christchurch red zone a priority during his visit to New Zealand, Foreign Minister Murray McCully says.

Recently discovered rumblings deep beneath New Zealand's most threatening fault line have yielded some exciting possibilities.

The aftershocks have all but stopped, but few in Christchurch dare mention the easing of the earth's fury.

A travel company has given 100 of its staff affected by the Christchurch earth-quakes a special Christmas bonus.

Christchurch will have a waterfront park development stretching for 3km along the Avon River as one the first key projects in the central city rebuild, announced today.

The Government's anticipated final bill for the Canterbury Earthquakes has risen again, topping the $13 billion mark in today's Half Year Economic and Fiscal Update.

A $140 million four-lane motorway officially opened in Christchurch today was a "remarkable achievement" given the city's earthquake damage and disruption, Transport Minister Gerry Brownlee said.

The manager of Stadium Southland says there are no concerns with the construction of the new $35 million arena, which is designed by Alan Reay whose firm designed Christchurch's CTV building.

The three main protagonists highlighted in a royal commission report into the CTV disaster have gone to ground today.

An inter-agency plan was released today to strengthen the role of Civil Defence, so it can better respond to civil emergencies such as the Christchurch earthquake.

The Christchurch firm that designed the ill-fated CTV office block may have built similar buildings that the council does not know about and have since gone unchecked, officials admitted today.

Families and friends of the 115 people killed in the February 2011 collapse of the CTV building are calling for legal action against those they feel are responsible.

Families of Canterbury Television building collapse victims have welcomed the findings of a royal commission into the building's collapse.

All non-residential buildings and high-rise, multi-unit apartments in NZ will be assessed for earthquake risk and the results made public under new proposals.

High-tech cameras designed to probe collapsed buildings and search for signs of life failed on February 22 and have since been replaced, an inquest was told today.

The actions of an Urban Search and Rescue team which tried to get to survivors trapped in the rubble of the CTV building will come under more scrutiny today.

A woman trapped in the debris of the collapsed CTV building could hear her distraught husband shouting her name as he searched for her, an inquest was told.

Srecko 'Alec' Cvetanov details the communication he had with his wife, Dr Tamara Cvetanova, in the passing hours and lead up to her death, as she was trapped in the debris of the collapsed CTV building following the deadly February 22 quake.

The eastern suburbs red zone is quickly becoming a huge wasteland as houses disappear and nature takes over.

Thousands of people have disappeared from Christchurch's earthquake-smashed eastern suburbs. And so it seems have wheelie bins.