RNZ visual journalist Rebekah Parsons-King has captured the cracked roads, landslips, and damaged railway lines from the air and ground, after a 7.8 magnitude earthquake hit early on Monday morning.
A full gallery of her images, and those of RNZ reporters and agencies in quake-hit areas, can be seen here:
The aftermath in the upper South Island - from the air:
The evacuation mission in Kaikoura:
More of the aftermath around Kaikoura:
Images of the bad weather that complicated quake recovery efforts can be viewed here:
The evacuation of some central Wellington buildings, near Courtenay Place: