| Telegraph.co.uk | - |
A
giant eagle used to promote The Hobbit film trilogy has fallen to earth
from the ceiling of Wellington airport during a severe earthquake in
central New Zealand.
Strong 6.3-earthquake jolts New Zealand
The tremor hit at a depth of 27 kilometres and was widely felt throughout the North and South islands.
RELATED
WELLINGTON: A powerful 6.3-magnitude earthquake rattled New Zealand
Monday, jolting buildings and halting train services, but there were no
immediate reports of major damage or injuries.
The quake, which struck at 3:52pm (0252 GMT), was centred in the North Island about 115 kilometres (71 miles) northeast of the capital city Wellington, the US Geological Survey said.
The tremor hit at a depth of 27 kilometres and was widely felt throughout the North and South islands. It was followed by a series of smaller aftershocks.
"I've seen the neighbours and they're a bit shaken up but apart from that no damage," Brian Smith of Eketahuna, near the centre of the quake, told Radio New Zealand, describing the tremor as as a sharp jolt.
"My wife was outside in the garden and she said she couldn't stand up and had to sit down."
New Zealand's GeoNet put the quake at a magnitude of 6.2, but had it at a shallower depth of 10 kilometres.
Some houses in the small township of Eketahuna suffered broken windows and structural damage but police said there had been no reports of injuries.
In Eketahuna, the local supermarket manager Tanmay Patel said the quake, which tossed merchandise from shelves, was terrifying.
"This is something I never want to have again. Felt like the roof was going to fall off," he told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
Pam Lochore, wife of All Blacks great Brian Lochore, said photographs had fallen off shelves and "a rugby ball went flying across the room" in their home at Masterton in the North Island's south.
One casualty of the quake was a giant model eagle which fell to the ground from the roof of Wellington airport where it was being used to promote the "Hobbit" movie trilogy.
All train services in the Wellington region were suspended due to the quake.
New Zealand is on the boundary of the Australian and Pacific tectonic plates, forming part of the so-called "Ring of Fire", and experiences up to 15,000 tremors a year.
A devastating 6.3-magnitude temblor in the South Island city of Christchurch in 2011 killed 185 people -- one of the nation's deadliest disasters of the modern era.
Wellington was the scene of the country's most powerful earthquake in 1855.
That devastating 8.2-magnitude quake caused four deaths and changed the city's entire geography, pushing the shoreline out 200 metres (660 feet) as it thrust the harbour floor upwards.
The quake, which struck at 3:52pm (0252 GMT), was centred in the North Island about 115 kilometres (71 miles) northeast of the capital city Wellington, the US Geological Survey said.
The tremor hit at a depth of 27 kilometres and was widely felt throughout the North and South islands. It was followed by a series of smaller aftershocks.
"I've seen the neighbours and they're a bit shaken up but apart from that no damage," Brian Smith of Eketahuna, near the centre of the quake, told Radio New Zealand, describing the tremor as as a sharp jolt.
"My wife was outside in the garden and she said she couldn't stand up and had to sit down."
New Zealand's GeoNet put the quake at a magnitude of 6.2, but had it at a shallower depth of 10 kilometres.
Some houses in the small township of Eketahuna suffered broken windows and structural damage but police said there had been no reports of injuries.
In Eketahuna, the local supermarket manager Tanmay Patel said the quake, which tossed merchandise from shelves, was terrifying.
"This is something I never want to have again. Felt like the roof was going to fall off," he told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
Pam Lochore, wife of All Blacks great Brian Lochore, said photographs had fallen off shelves and "a rugby ball went flying across the room" in their home at Masterton in the North Island's south.
One casualty of the quake was a giant model eagle which fell to the ground from the roof of Wellington airport where it was being used to promote the "Hobbit" movie trilogy.
All train services in the Wellington region were suspended due to the quake.
New Zealand is on the boundary of the Australian and Pacific tectonic plates, forming part of the so-called "Ring of Fire", and experiences up to 15,000 tremors a year.
A devastating 6.3-magnitude temblor in the South Island city of Christchurch in 2011 killed 185 people -- one of the nation's deadliest disasters of the modern era.
Wellington was the scene of the country's most powerful earthquake in 1855.
That devastating 8.2-magnitude quake caused four deaths and changed the city's entire geography, pushing the shoreline out 200 metres (660 feet) as it thrust the harbour floor upwards.
end quote from:
New Zealand earthquake topples The Hobbit's eagle
Giant eagle being used to promote film trilogy falls from the ceiling of Wellington airport during earthquake
One of the two giant eagle sculptures
promoting The Hobbit movie trilogy lying on the ground after it fell in
the wake of a 6.3 magnitude earthquake at Wellington Airport Photo: AP Photo/New Zealand Herald, Hagen Hopkins
A giant eagle used to promote The Hobbit film trilogy has fallen to earth from
the ceiling of Wellington airport during a severe earthquake in central New
Zealand.
However, a second eagle, being ridden by a sculpture of The Hobbit’s
beneficent wizard Gandalf, was undamaged and remained affixed to the ceiling.
The quake, with a 6.3 magnitude, damaged buildings and caused train
suspensions, rock slides and road closures but is not believed to have
caused any injuries.
It was centred about 80 miles north of Wellington and struck at 3.52pm local
time at a depth of about 17 miles.
Heather Gowans, who lives in the town of Masterton, about 24 miles from the
quake centre, said: "It was really shaking and rolling - it went on for
about 30 seconds… It just kept going and going and was swaying really bad.
Everything was swaying and the place was creaking and groaning - but luckily
nothing is broken."
At the airport, the giant eagle – with a wingspan of 45 feet – slowly
dislodged during the quake and dropped, hitting 19-year-old Lauren Stone on
the head.
Ms Stone said she and a friend were sitting beneath the eagle when its wing fell on top of their table and knocked it over.
“[The eagle] started shaking heaps and rattling, we jumped under the table," she told The Dominion Post.
"The eagle fell on top of us. We ran away ... I definitely know I was hit on the head kind of thing but it didn't hurt or anything like that… I don't think anyone really saw us, all the mums were screaming, it was quite panicked."
Natalie Julian, who works at the airport's doughnut store, said: “I was having lunch about 20 metres away and I caught a glimpse of my workmates looking distressed. I saw the eagle swaying then heard a horrendous noise. It was like the roof was coming down."
An airport spokesman, Greg Thomas, told The Telegraph: “The Gandalf one is fine. We will be conducting an engineering inspection on it to check it is ok…. We are in the process of investigating what failed on the second eagle.
The airport installed the giant eagles in the airport last month.
The film trilogies based on the J. R. R. Tolkien books The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings have all been directed by a New Zealander, Peter Jackson, who filmed in New Zealand and turned the local landscapes into the fictional Middle-earth.
The earthquake-prone nation experiences about 15,000 tremors a year and is still recovering from a devastating 6.3-magnitude quake in the South Island city of Christchurch in 2011 which killed 185 people and destroyed much of the central city.
end quote from:
Ms Stone said she and a friend were sitting beneath the eagle when its wing fell on top of their table and knocked it over.
“[The eagle] started shaking heaps and rattling, we jumped under the table," she told The Dominion Post.
"The eagle fell on top of us. We ran away ... I definitely know I was hit on the head kind of thing but it didn't hurt or anything like that… I don't think anyone really saw us, all the mums were screaming, it was quite panicked."
Natalie Julian, who works at the airport's doughnut store, said: “I was having lunch about 20 metres away and I caught a glimpse of my workmates looking distressed. I saw the eagle swaying then heard a horrendous noise. It was like the roof was coming down."
An airport spokesman, Greg Thomas, told The Telegraph: “The Gandalf one is fine. We will be conducting an engineering inspection on it to check it is ok…. We are in the process of investigating what failed on the second eagle.
The airport installed the giant eagles in the airport last month.
The film trilogies based on the J. R. R. Tolkien books The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings have all been directed by a New Zealander, Peter Jackson, who filmed in New Zealand and turned the local landscapes into the fictional Middle-earth.
The earthquake-prone nation experiences about 15,000 tremors a year and is still recovering from a devastating 6.3-magnitude quake in the South Island city of Christchurch in 2011 which killed 185 people and destroyed much of the central city.
end quote from:
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