Residents were temporarily allowed back in this morning to feed pets, fetch personal belongings and pray in the church. Two more earthquakes shook the central North Island last night but there has been no major reports of damage at Waihi Village. Residents of the village are barred from their homes until Friday due to fears of a landslide after a swarm of earthquakes. A handful of residents briefly returned home around 8am today, with some needing to feed pets and two men offering a karakia at the Catholic church. This morning at about 4.50am an earthquake measuring 2.9 on the Richter scale at a depth of 5km shook the area, while at about 8.40pm last night a 2.8-magnitude earthquake at a depth of 3km was felt.
There had been no reports of damage, a northern police communications spokesman said this morning.
Civil Defence and Emergency Management staff intend to conduct an aerial survey this afternoon. Senior technicians from GNS Science are also monitoring the area.
The historic village - the ancestral base of Taupo iwi Ngati Tuwharetoa - is on a seismic fault line in an area of known instability near the Hipaua Cliffs geothermal area at the southwest corner of Lake Taupo. (http://www.stuff.co.nz/)
