If a big earthquake hits Wellington, the city could be cut off for four months and power and gas not fully restored for three months, a new report warns.

Christchurch mayor Bob Parker doesn't pull any punches in a personal account of the earthquakes that rocked his city.

A Fire Service has disagreed strongly with some earlier witnesses at the CTV inquest that there was confusion over leadership on February 22 last year.

A "strong" earthquake has struck Fiordland this morning, GeoNet reports.

Search and rescue units were told to stop scouring the collapsed CTV Building's rubble for survivors within 24 hours of it coming down.

A coroner's inquest today heard from a senior search and rescue expert who described the "chaos" at the disaster site when he arrived two hours after the building's collapse.

The inquest into the CTV deaths has heard of frustrations caused by delays and chaos in the hours after the catastrophe.

The green-zoning of a final eight residential properties in the Port Hills of Christchurch marks the end of the zoning process in Canterbury.

A magnitude 4.9 earthquake has shaken the eastern Bay of Plenty early this morning, GeoNet reports.

A 4.0 magnitude earthquake was recorded 20 km north-east of Waipukurau this morning at a depth of 34km.

More harrowing testimony is expected as a coroner's inquest into the deaths of eight CTV building victims continues today.

The police officer left in charge of the Christchurch earthquake's biggest disaster zone said he became "frustrated" at being ordered off the site as he tried to rescue survivors.

Police today admitted the February 22 earthquake disaster in Christchurch "overwhelmed" their communication system.

Mark Quigley asks: Do scientists have a right to be wrong? Does state-of-the-art science really enable us to speak confidentially about "low-probability" events?