Trump calls New Zealand to express quake sorrow

The navy ship HMNZS Canterbury is expected to arrive later Wednesday and Brownlee said he was also sending three other New Zealand vessels.

The ship originally intended on participating in a ceremony commemorating the 75th anniversary of the Royal New Zealand Navy, the New Zealand Herald reported.

LOOKING like something out of a sci-fi movie, these alien-like rocks have seemingly crawled out of the sea in the wake of the monster magnitude 7.8 quake which shook New Zealand on Monday.

Kaikoura, with a district population of 3600, was hardest hit by Monday morning’s severe 7.5-magnitude quake, in which two people died. A 10-storey building in Wellington is now at risk of collapse. They’ve also been bringing in supplies of water, food and fuel.

They hosted 500 people Monday and expect to have another 200 stay overnight on Tuesday.

The Sampson is the first United States warship to visit New Zealand waters in 33 years, ending a ban sparked by a Cold War-era diplomatic spat over Wellington’s ban on nuclear-powered vessels.

A popular New Zealand fur seal colony near Kaikoura, where pups could often be seeing playing in a waterfall in a nearby stream, was destroyed by a landslide, Department of Conversation officials said.

Webb said the military planned to begin using four NH90 helicopters on Tuesday that could each transport about 18 people out of the town at a time.

They were stranded when the tremor, which claimed two lives, severed road and rail access, leaving the town short of water and with little power.

“Hanmer Springs is open, as is the Waipara Valley wine region, the Tranz Alpine is running as normal from Christchurch to Greymouth via Arthur’s Pass and a daily intercity coach service between Christchurch and Picton is operating via the Lewis Pass”, he said. A powerful natural disaster that rocked New Zealand on Monday triggered landslides and a small tsun.

People in other buildings around the area, including a church, Rugby House and the New Zealand Red Cross headquarters, have been evacuated as a precaution. But some buildings remained closed, and heavy rain and flooding compounded the difficulties.

Key traveled by helicopter to Kaikoura on Wednesday. Cars could be seen lying on their sides and parts of the road were clearly impassable.

“I just know from going through the Christchurch earthquakes just how much it undermines people’s confidence”, Key said.

In Wellington, where frequent aftershocks continued to be felt hours after the first quake, residents heading for higher ground caused gridlock on the roads to Mount Victoria, a hill with a lookout over the low-lying coastal city.

A small comfort perhaps, is only in the cows which captured the nation’s attention after being stranded on an outcrop being rescued and re-homed on a farm in Southland.

Newshub first filmed the cows stuck on the patch of grass near the township of Kaikoura after the magnitude 7.8 quake triggered landslides around them.

A student volunteer army, formed after a 7.8 magnitude tremor that killed 185 people in Christchurch in 2011, had mobilised to help the evacuees, university spokeswoman Margaret Agnew said.

New Zealand lies in the seismically active “Ring of Fire”, a 40,000 km arc of volcanoes and oceanic trenches that partly encircles the Pacific Ocean.