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National | Bay of Plenty

Tsunami warning remains in place

Tsunami warnings remain in place for coastal areas of New Zealand, following the 8.3 magnitude quake that hit Chile yesterday.

Waves of half a meter higher than normal have hit New Zealand and strong currents and high tides are still expected in eastern coastal areas.

The first tsunami wave hit New Zealand at approximately 11:50pm last night at the Chatham Islands. According to reports on the NZ Get Thru Facebook Page, the Chathams experienced waves of around 50cm in places and repeated ebbing and flowing of the tide, along with ocean noises associated with tide surge.

Minor fluctuations in sea levels have also been recorded in North Cape, Great Barrier Island, Tauranga, East Cape, Gisborne, Napier, Castlepoint, Wellington, Kaikoura, Christchurch.

NZ Get Thru has stated that as the morning progresses, they will get a better picture of any impact there has been from the tsunami and that local Civil Defence Emergency Management Groups will be assessing things on the ground.

Civil Defence and Emergency Management are still advising residents in coastal areas to stay away from the water, off the beaches and to not go sightseeing.

Civil Defence has also released this diagram showing the areas that have been and will continue to be affected by the tsunami:

To keep up to date with the latest information, you can visit the Civil Defence website and Facebook page. Geonet is also providing tsunami gauges showing the waves arriving on our shores.