Northland firefighters helping battle devastating bushfires in Tasmania have had to deal with another natural phenomenon - an earthquake.
Locals in the Australian state could not figure out what jolted them at the breakfast table yesterday, but Kiwi firefighters and their support crew knew exactly what was going on.
"It was like a truck had hit the building we were having breakfast in," said Matiu Mataira, a firefighter from the Department of Conservation in Whangarei.
Tasmania was yesterday struck by a magnitude 3.4 quake at 7.21am AEDT (9.21am NZT), centred in the Bass Strait, 20km north of Wynyard, at a depth of 9km, followed by a magnitude 2.5 quake at 10.27am.
Six Northlanders are among a team of 12 Kiwi firefighters that left for Australia last Wednesday after a request for help from across the ditch.