Shaky Isles report

Sunday, 14 Dec, 2005 0

New Zealand has had an interesting couple of days weather wise with gog grounding planes at Wellington and earth tremors rattling the North Island.

Fog crept back to Wellington Airport after months of respite, forcing flight cancellations for the 15th time this year.

More than 100 Air New Zealand flights had been cancelled and about 7000 passengers affected in the latest bout, spokeswoman Pam Wong said.

Airport duty manager Ian Pocock said fog started causing problems about 7pm on Monday and by 8pm no flights were getting in or out. Six international flights tried to land about midnight but had to be diverted to Auckland and Palmerston North.

The problem continued yesterday morning, with Air New Zealand and Qantas suspending check-ins about 9am. Fifteen Air New Zealand flights carrying about 700 passengers were diverted to Palmerston North.

The airport was closed for five consecutive days in February and for six days in a week in March, disrupting the plans of more than 40,000 travellers. Fog also closed the airport on April 12, May 5 and May 19. On average, Wellington has 4.8 days a year when fog persists for more than one hour.

In addition, an earthquake measuring 4.5 on the Richter scale rattled the Wellington region at 9.09pm last night.

The quake, which was about 30 kilometres deep, was centred 10km northeast of Porirua and 20km southwest of Paraparaumu. It was felt in Lower Hutt, Porirua, Wellington and the Kapiti Coast.

Early yesterday morning, another quake – reaching 5 on the Richter scale – struck 20km east of Pahiatua. It was felt throughout the lower North Island.

The 25-kilometre-deep earthquake, struck at 2.55am



 

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Graham Muldoon



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