Just noticed this remarkable coincidence: in this article

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/nz-earthquake/86599439/the-miraculous-rescue-of-100yearold-margaret-edgar

it mentions that the house that collapsed causing the only direct fatality of the quake was built by the Bullen family in 1875.

I knew the name Bullen from often seeing one of the standard textbooks on seismology by one of most prominent scientists NZ has produced:

http://www.asap.unimelb.edu.au/bsparcs/aasmemoirs/bullen.htm

I've never owned a copy but maybe I should,
it"s a bargain.

Keith Bullen was born in Auckland in 1906 - it's not a common name. Was he from the same family?