'It feels like we are sitting on jelly': Winery owners

Their ceiling has collapsed, there is no running water or power, every bottle, glass and plate in their restaurant is broken - and a bottle of pinot noir has already been opened.

Marble Point Winery owner Sheryl Dennis spent today cleaning up the remains of her ceiling which collapsed in the earthquake and tomorrow she will walk 100 metres to her restaurant to tackle all the broken bottles, plates and glasses lying on the floor.

The winery is 13kms from Hamner Springs and Dennis said she had a house full of guests staying with her on their way home from a wedding in Queenstown when the quake hit.

Dennis woke to the sound of a "freight train coming through her house" and waited for about 30 seconds until it struck.

"We just sat and waited. The bed is rocking up and down. My ranch slider was opening and closing. It was pretty out there."

It was the most "severe" she had experienced and lasted for more than a minute.

"My son was sleeping on a mattress in our second lounge and our entire ceiling just collapsed. If you see his bed, he was obviously out of the bed before most of it fell down but stuff fell on him. We were pretty lucky really."

Dennis is taking the damage from this morning's quake in her stride and "chilling" with a bottle of pinot noir with her family before they tackled the mess left by the quake in their restaurant and cellar door business tomorrow.

"All the ceilings in our house have come down. We've spent all day cleaning it so we can actually stay in the house. We've got no water. We've got no power. Our business - we went down and had a look this morning and we just closed the doors and walked away - we will deal with that tomorrow.

"But there isn't a bottle of wine or a cup or a plate or a glass that's not broken in the business.

"We've just shut it up and we will tackle with that tomorrow."

The generator they have is being used to run a chiller at the restaurant and the contents of all their fridges have been emptied in to it.

The family was this afternoon sitting around the large dining table are was ready to dive under it if they felt a particularly large after shock.

"The entire time in actual fact it feels like we are sitting on a jelly. It just feels like everything is fluid and everything underneath you is just moving.

"We just sit here and wait for it and if it's too bad we just get under the bigger table."

Dennis said her dogs were more freaked out by the aftershocks than she was and one felt it about 30 seconds before anyone else did.

She did not know how long they would be without power, but said they were prepared and could survive with what they had until at least Friday.

Their emergency kit included a large 20 litre bucket with a toilet seat, which had come in handy as it was their only working toilet.