Civil Defence admits tsunami messages mixed

Coastal areas of New Zealand went into overdrive in the wake of a tsunami warning issued after a 7.6 magnitude quake in the Kermadec Islands.

It struck at 7.03am, at depth of 48km in the Kermadec Islands region, some 800-1000km north of New Zealand.

Civil Defence has acknowledged there may have been some confusion over this morning's warning.

It occurred after the Hawaii-based Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre issued, then cancelled, its tsunami warnings before Civil Defence.

However, PTWC warnings are not an official status for New Zealand, Civil Defence advisories are.

Civil Defence operations manager David Coetzee admitted there were mixed messages as to the warning situation this morning.

"I appreciate it can be pretty confusing," he said.

He told Radio New Zealand this morning it bases its decisions off GNS Science advice, and this morning's tsunami threat ended up being lower than expected.

"We follow well established procedures that we have designed with the support of our scientific advisors," Mr Coetzee said.

"So when earthquakes of a certain magnitude occur within a certain area at a certain depth then we start doing things as a matter of process. And we assess the threat from there on and we either upscale or downscale [the threat], whatever we need to do.

"But we can't wait until a proper, more confident assessment has been made - we need to act fast and in this case two to three hours travel time from the Kermadecs to the first New Zealand coast.

"We take the precautionary route and do what we have to do."

East Coast reaction

In Gisborne, residents were taking no chances.

A large logship was put out to sea in the face of the marine warning, according to Hawke's Bay Today.

Coastal schools opened as usual but parents kept about 15 children home from Wainui Beach School, which is also a Civil Defence station, until all danger had passed.

Principal Nolian Andrew said: "In the event of a tsunami warning, we would assemble all the children on the side of State Highway 35."

In the city centre, the Community Childcare Centre, on the Taruheru riverbank, stayed closed until after 8.30am when the warning was cancelled, causing minor disruptions for parents with an early start.

A few people headed to higher ground such as Kaiti Hill, some armed with binoculars. They included a group of Chilean people who expressed fears for their lives.

But crowds on hilltops were not to the extent of previous alerts, which almost caused gridlock on hilltop roads.

Northland swells

On the east coast of Northland there were significant swells about 10am.

Dive Tutukaka, which is based in the Tutukaka Harbour just north of Whangarei, cancelled three or four dive charters out to the Poor Knights Islands today because of the swells and a gale warning for later today and tomorrow.

Dive Tutukaka's Kate Malcolm said the water was calm and flat but there was a rise and fall of about half a metre in the harbour and they were expecting that to continue for possibly six hours.

"We were expecting a short, sharp increase (in surges) and that is what we are seeing at the moment."

- with additional reporting from Hawke's Bay Today