Explosives have been shaking Christchurch's QE2 sports centre
Audio, Radio New Zealand
Explosives have been shaking Christchurch's QE2 sports centre today to simulate a magnitude 4 earthquake.
Explosives have been shaking Christchurch's QE2 sports centre today to simulate a magnitude 4 earthquake.
International research has shed new light on why the February earthquake in Christchurch was so damaging.
The Ellerslie International Flower Show opens in Christchurch today, a year after the February earthquake stopped the show.
Repair work on Christchurch's iconic Town Hall, badly damaged in the earthquakes, has nearly hit the halfway mark.
Six years after Christchurch's destructive 6.3 magnitude earthquake the rebuild programme is now being used to provide training for workers from the Pacific. Twenty-four workers from Fiji, Tonga and Samoa are helping rebuild the city while learning new skills and earning money they can send home.
The Christchurch City Council is investing $156 million in 13 cycleways across the city, in a post-earthquake overhaul of the city's transport network.
It's more than eight years since the earthquakes saw Christchurch crumble. Forty billion dollars has been poured into rebuilding - but what's missing now, is people.
Christchurch residents forced away from their redzone homes returned today for the unveiling of the the Avon loop pathway - the first redevelopment, nine years on from the deadly earthquake. Reporter Conan Young went along to hear from them.
Construction delays and cost over-runs are prolonging the earthquake risks facing patients and staff at Christchurch hospital. Six major hospital buildings at the central city site have been listed as earthquake prone since May, but there is no safer space to shift patients into. Christchurch Hospital boss David Meates pron; Mates says the hospital is still basically a construction site. One earthquake prone building has roof tanks containing 75 tonnes of water. Mr Meates told RNZ reporter Phil Pennington removing the water from the tanks in the meantime is not an option.
The decision on what to do with Christchurch's earthquake damaged redzone is one step closer, with the end of the public consultation period on the plan for the area. Over the past month Christchurch people have been asked to comment on a draft land use plan for the 602 hectares of land. Now those pitching ideas want the authorities to get on with the next step, so they can have some certainty about whether their projects can go ahead.
Two tragedies have brought two groups of young people from opposite sides of the world together for a special tree planting in Christchurch. Twenty-eight students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida -- the scene of a deadly shooting in February -- are spending the week with the Student Volunteer Army, established after the Christchurch earthquake. Jonathan Mitchell reports.
Years after the earthquakes, Christchurch is still desperately short of theatre space. But now the city council's investment of 30-million dollars to help the Court Theatre replace its very successful temporary home in Addington, is being widely applauded.
The Canterbury earthquakes damaged the facility beyond use, and almost six years after it was demolished, a new facility known as Taiora QE2 has risen from the rubble.
A Christchurch homeowner in a five year battle with the Earthquake Commission over the damaged house she unwittingly bought says a critical new report about EQC tells her nothing new. The 27 page review by Independent Ministerial Advisor Christine Stevenson looks at how to resolve the 3,600 claims that still haven't been settled after the 2010 and 2011 quakes. The recommendations include getting the Commission to hire more staff and to stop forcing people to use the Official Information Act to get their files. It also suggests giving EQC more power to settle the on-sold claims where people bought houses under the impression all damage had been identified and fixed. Georgina Hannafin has a home that needs $260,000 worth of repairs but EQC has offered her just $48,000.
New research suggests about half the Christchurch businesses which left the central city after the Canterbury earthquakes are unlikely to return.
Despite Government pressure on the Christchurch City Council to sell off some of its assets to help fund its 40% share of the city's earthquake repairs, the council has instead decided to raise rates, and rents.
The Insurance Council has shot down criticism the industry may be delaying earthquake claims for financial gain.
The Earthquake Recovery Minister has revealed the rebuild of Christchurch's damaged sewage and water pipes will be quite a bit more expensive than predicted.
Two years on from the February twenty second earthquake, large parts of Christchurch Hospital are a construction site as repairs to damaged wards continue.
For people in Christchurch who have to temporarily leave their earthquake damaged home, two housing villages are filling the accommodation gap.
Hundreds of engineers are on the ground in Christchurch, assessing the damage in the wake of Tuesday's earthquake and are heading into the CBD en masse for the first time.
Pregnant women and new mothers are escaping the disruption and risk of Christchurch in the wake of Tuesday's earthquake.
Hundreds of public servants are on their way to Christchurch to relieve their weary colleagues and bolster the Government's response to Tuesday's earthquake.
Roger Sutton, the chief executive of networks company Orion has taken up a five-year contract as the CEO of the Christchurch Earthquake Reconstruction Authority, the top bureaucrat in the post-quake city.
Christchurch's Court Theatre devastated by February's earthquake has found a temporary new home - an old grain store in the suburb of Addington.
Two shattering earthquakes and a few thousand aftershocks haven't put off a hundred immigrants becoming New Zealand citizens in Christchurch.
The wait will finally be over for some Christchurch households when they find out whether their earthquake-damaged properties will be abandoned.
The task of rebuilding Christchurch is being compared to what was required to restore the Japanese city of Kobe after its massive earthquake in 1995.
The wind is picking up in Christchurch, causing concern about dust storms being blown up from earthquake debris and silt.
Christchurch Health authorities say they will never put acutely unwell patients on top floors again after having to evacuate them after the 22nd of February earthquake.