At 12:02 am on 14th November 2016, a magnitude 7.8 earthquake occurred in Rotherham, near Waiau, in the South Island of New Zealand at a depth of 15 km. Widespread damage occurred in the surrounding area and affected coastal and inland highway and rail links. Wellington, the capital city of New Zealand, was majorly impacted with significant damage to numerous buildings, some of which had to be demolished, whilst CentrePort, the main shipping terminal in the city, was disrupted for nearly a year. With substantive population in Wellington region, it accounted for some two thirds of insurance claims, whereas the upper South Island with much fewer residents had about one quarter, the remaining 10% was from the rest of the South Island and North Island.
The aerial photos linked to below were flown on behalf of Linz a short time after the quake and show in considerable detail the severe magnitude of damage to the Kaikoura coastline that ensued. SH1 south of Kaikoura and the inland Kaikoura road both reopened in December 2016, but it took another year to reopen SH1 north of Kaikoura. The Main North Line rail corridor was reopened in September 2017 only for freight; the Coastal Pacific passenger service resumed in December 2018.
These photos are viewed in a special map viewer page and whilst the usual range of overlays are available, there is only one base layer available which is the aerial photo layer. Some of the damage at a lower resolution can also be viewed with the Aerial Basemaps layer in the regular maps viewer page.