Quote Originally Posted by Simon Barden View Post
Plus our biggest earthquake has been about 4 on the Richter scale and loosened some dust. Rather nasty events in NZ in the past few days. Not as bad as the ones that did so much damage to Christchurch, but still, bad enough.
One of the perils of living on the pacific rim, unfortunately. The edges of the pacific plate and the Australian plate bisect the South Island and create some very active geothermal spots though the middle of the North Island.

Australia by comparison sits smack bang in the middle of its very own plate being all ancient and weathered and geologically stable. Boring really. Which is probably why so much of the wildlife is fantastically lethal and in cases (Tasmanian Devils, Salt Water Crocs, Taipans) perpetually grumpy.