Here's a first-hand report from one of our Morris families, sent out to all NZ Morris dancers this morning:

Hello All,
    In response to text messages and emails of concern along with well-wishes, I thought it might be worth writing a group email. Dave, could you please circulate this to the wider Morris community.

    The main thing is that we are fine! As the awfulness of the wider impact unfolded on the radio and TV our family realised just how lucky we had been. Yes, we felt the full, violent, prolonged shaking and shamefully, while my children ran to doorways, I couldn't think what to do (being 50 has its drawbacks) and just lay in bed thinking "Oh heck this is the Big One," and reminding myself that our old villa no longer had brick chimney stacks. I was also thinking that I might actually die in this earthquake. Our house is on piles, and we could feel the house staggering with a zig-zag motion. Elwin was remembering six weeks of winter grim and grime working under the house to anchor it to the piles according to the building consent requirements for our relocated building. Worth every aching moment!
    Bryony's collection of coke bottles fell in a frightening cascade from a high place, but not one broke. I don't think she'll be putting them back up there. Otherwise the dreadful "Sweet Jenny Jones" plate that you lot gave us for giving you the Morris Tour, fell off the piano, a few photo frames tumbled, crockery dislodged but nothing broke. I was worried about the chimneys and indeed the two-storey 130 year old concrete structure of my old family home (which Elwin and I bought 6 weeks ago), but it only suffered a cracked window and the existing cracks from earlier earthquakes don't seem to have widened at all. Once news of the damage in nearby Kaiapoi and Christchurch reached us we were able to appreciate how lucky we really have been. We have not been affected by power cuts, and because we have a 3000 litre water tank as well as a septic tank, we haven't suffered the breakdown in infrastructure that has crippled parts of Christchurch. In fact venturing out today as far as Rangiora I feel almost guilty to be going about business as normal.
    Kitty's primary school is closed as a formality, but Bryony's school, Unlimited Paenga Tawhiti, which is located in the heart of Christchurch's destruction, is likely to remain closed for as long as it takes to make the CBD safe again.
    I have always loved the historic street frontages in Christchurch, and supported campaigns to preserve the city's built heritage,
but with a whim of mother nature so much of it has just been wiped out, along with places of deep historical significance like the Deans homestead near the epicentre of the Earthquake. When I consider that in any other major earthquake the losses are counted in Human lives these heritage buildings are mere ephemera. What is left may now be valued more highly, but a path has opened for a new cityscape. Today we heard that the earthquake occurred on a fault line that had not moved for 16,000 years. And the Best of British luck sited a new city, right handy about 150 years before the upheaval!
    Nor' West Arch cancelled its day of dance on Saturday, but news from other dancers around the place suggests that most of us got off lightly. That includes Rod and Migs, who live at New Brighton on sandy terrain, and Trevor Robertson and his little boy Bleys who have only recently bought a house in Avonside - the area where the liquification occurred.

    Thanks for all the messages of concern and support. Our best wishes to everyone including Morris fellows in Christchurch.
Much Love
Jeneane and Family
Rangiora