Today it was a week since the earthquake and all over the country there were services with a two minutes silence to remember the dead and injured. Being down in Wellington for work, I joined thousands of people for a short service in the grounds of parliment.

There are currently 155 confirmed dead and this is expected to rise to about 240, which is a lot lower than some of the initial estimates.

Just as I was about to write this, Wellington had a 4.5 quake, which although it only lasted about 5 seconds it was more than enough to get my heart racing. Then about half an hour later there was another aftershock in Christchurch which I also felt here (400 miles away).

A 4.5 is about 60 times weaker than the 6.3 that hit Christchurch and it also lasted a lot longer, so I can only imagine what that felt like.

The strongest one I've ever felt was a 5.4 in Wales in 1984, which is the largest onshore earthquake ever recorded in the UK. I'll be quite happy not to break that record.