All Blacks great Richie McCaw has joined the deadly earthquake rescue efforts.
The recently retired rugby superstar is now a commercial helicopter pilot.
"From there, we took the Fire Service just north and south of Kaikoura to check out all the slips and make sure everyone was accounted for," he said.
From the air, McCaw said he saw "big cracks in the road, cracks in the side of the hills, and obviously slips".
"At one point, the railway was way out over the sea - it had been pushed out by slips. It would not have been a nice place to be at midnight last night."