DOGS WARNED OWNERS OF EARLY-MORNING 7.1 EARTHQUAKE AND TSUNAMI RISK ON EAST COAST

It was the dogs that felt it first.

As their masters slept soundly in homes up and down the East Coast, it was their dogs – of all breeds and ages – that raised the alarm.

Some sprang into action two minutes before the earth began to roll. Others left it until moments before it hit.

Some barked, some nudged their sleeping owner’s hand. Some made a noise their owners had never heard before.

But in the minutes before 2.27am it was the canines who first knew of the 7.1 quake that struck 105 kilometres east of Te Araroa.

Graeme and Pauline Summersby, who live on top of a hill between Hicks Bay and Te Araroa on the East Coast, have lived in the area for more than 30 years and said the 2.27am quake was the strongest they had ever felt.

Like others, they were woken by their dog before the shaking began. Monty, the Jack Russell, began barking moments before it started.

“He’s a bit crazy and barks at possums or hedgehogs, but once we felt the shaking we knew that was what he was on about,” Graeme said.

“We’re in a wooden house with fly screens and sash windows and all that, so there was extreme noise. It’s not only the motion but the noise of the house moving as well.

“Considering the size of the shake, we were quite lucky – we only lost two bits of crockery we had on a cabinet. We were very fortunate,” he said.

“The good part of all this is that people seem to have got the message about the alerts. I went down both sides of the road, and I’d say all the residents of Hicks Bay had evacuated and were up here on the hill,” he said.

“I had a few nips of whisky, and I was fine,” he added.

“It was all on”

Dave the 10-year-old mongrel dog also felt the quake before his humans did. He ran to the bed of his owner, Matthew Campbell, and began nudging his hand.

“A minute later and it was all on,” said Campbell, a resident of Hicks Bay, which is about 12km northwest of Te Araroa.

“It was quite strong, but more like a rolling earthquake than a jolting quake. It woke the whole family up,” he said.

Campbell, his wife and four children all ran for doorways.

“We stood there looking at each other, thinking, ‘S… it’s going on for quite a while.’ My young fella checked his phone to see it was a 7.2 out east of Te Araroa. We waited for the sirens, but nothing happened. There were a few aftershocks, but nothing major.”

Nothing fell off shelves and the shake was not as strong as the last major quake to hit the area in 2016.

Packing bags in the night

Elaine Dewes, who lives in Te Araroa, was woken by the shake, packed her bags, got in her car and drove up a nearby hill.

“It was a long rolling one, not like that one in 2016. That was much worse. My walls were shaking in that one. I thought my house was going to fall down,” she said.

Owners of Te Araroa’s Four Square shop, Roslyn and Rick Metcalfe, were also woken by their two dogs, Kaha and Kotiro, about two minutes ahead of the shaking.

“They were going a bit mental,” Roslyn said. “It wasn’t ordinary barking. It was different. I knew something was wrong. I sat up in the bed and told them to be quiet, like you do, then it hit. The bed started moving. They felt it before us.”

The couple got out of bed, jumped in their car and shot up the hill behind the settlement, where about 200 other people had gathered in their cars.

They returned to the store once the all-clear had been given later in the morning.

“We went to the shop and were expecting it to be pretty bad. It was quite a shake,” she said.

“But there were just four items on the floor. Four. We were expecting the worst, wine on the floor smashed, everything off the shelves. We feel blessed, considering where we are.”

“Pretty scary shake”

Further south at Tokomaru Bay, the local Four Square manager Rebecca Beard said it was a “pretty scary shake”, with most of the Tokomaru township moving to higher ground and remaining there.

The store floor scattered with smashed bottles and other groceries that had fallen off shelves. Beard said she heard the Civil Defence Alerts, her family evacuated “straight away”.

At least one school on the East Coast had cancelled classes as earthquakes continued to strike the Kermadec Islands northeast of New Zealand after the initial quake.

There was no school on Friday for the 114 pupils of Te Araroa’s Te Waha o Rerekohu Area School, said principal Caron Taana, who was shaken awake by the quake.

She made the call to cancel school for the day.

“I’d have anticipated that many parents wouldn’t have sent them to school today. They’d want to keep them close to them. Parents were happy we made the decision. We are right on the beach,” Taana said.

Two significant earthquakes had hit since then – a magnitude 7.4 earthquake happened at 6.41am near the Kermadec Islands, and a magnitude 8.1 earthquake about 8.28am, also near the Kermadecs.

“I’m very proud of our community because they all knew the ‘long and strong and be gone’ and that’s what they did. They all shot up the hill, then our Civil Defence and fire service made sure anyone else had evacuated,” Taana said.

“Rushing back” to high ground after more quakes

Hicks Bay Motel duty manager Jackie Grace said on Friday that people had rushed back up to the motel, which sits on a hill just south of the settlement, for a second time that morning.

“They were all up here this morning, went home, then they’ve all come back up again,” she said at about 9am on Friday, after the Kermadec Islands quakes struck.

She said there were about 100 people in cars in the motel car park and parked on the road on Friday morning.

“All the locals and the kids are here. I’d say most of them would have had kai after this morning’s shake, but we’ve got stuff in the pie warmer if we need it,” she said.

“Everyone’s sitting on the deck looking out to sea at the moment. The sea was flat this morning, but there have been a couple of ripple lines forming just starting now. But the tide hasn’t receded or anything like that,” Grace said.

Owner of the Hicks Bay store, Louina Houkamau, said the small settlement’s population of about 160 reacted quickly and most evacuated the area within minutes.

“It was long and strong and we knew we had to be gone,” she said.

Houkamau, her partner and their 11-year-old daughter, got straight in their car once the shaking stopped and drove up “the back hill” – one of three high points that locals drive to in these situations.

“It’s definitely scary. People are pretty good about evacuating,” she said.