Southland earthquake caught on film

A Central Otago family has managed to capture part of their experience during last night's quake on film.

The 7.8-magnitude quake struck in Fiordland at 9.22pm yesterday.

Rebecca Flannery - who lives with her husband Richie and their two sons Dominic, 9, and Frano, 8, in Central Otago's Ophir Valley - said it felt like the quake had gone on for about four minutes.

She had time to grab her camera and a battery, which was in another room, before filming the house shaking.

The video, which she sent to Stuff.co.nz, shows wide-eyed Richie, Dominic and Frano huddled in the doorway while the house shakes and lights swing from the ceiling.

The kids were particularly excited and were up asking questions for hours after the shake.

"They just want to know all about earthquakes and how they happen ... so it was cool.

"[We've] sort of sat there and gone 'Is it a quake? - yeah it's a quake, is it just a wee one, it's getting bigger' and then it just got bigger and bigger and I thought 'I'm going to get the camera'."

She said the shaking made it difficult to walk.

"When we were first going for the door, I was really struggling ... and then I adjusted really quickly and went for the camera and just got low but it was throwing me around."

There was a significant amount of damage in their mud brick home - mainly cracks in the wall which would need to be fixed, she said.

"I just stood there and watched a crack come down the hallway."

Mrs Flannery said she had lived in Japan between 1996 and 2000, so had some experience with earthquakes - though living in a high rise building there meant it was a more frightening experience.

"That's scary when you're up really high and the building actually starts swaying but here it's a bit different and you're like, 'oh it's not that bad'."

To add to the families woes they are also recovering from swine flu, having been quarantined with the virus while on holiday in Fiji.

- © Fairfax NZ News