Community meetings are being held across the West Coast to help residents prepare for a violent earthquake.
It's predicted the Alpine Fault running down the South Island will rupture in the next 50 years.
The South Island's serene Southern Alps are the result of violent earthquakes caused by the fault, and there's a 75 per cent chance it will shake again soon.
“The recent science suggests we're going to have a large, potentially magnitude 8 earthquake and we could see that within the next 50 years,” says the Earthquake Commission’s Alistair Davies.
The last significant quake on the Alpine Fault was in 1717. In the last 18,000 years it's ruptured 27 times - every 300 years on average.
When the 800-kilometre-long fault line goes again, it's predicted to cause widespread damage.
"Obviously the Alpine Fault is going to be a significant impact across the infrastructure for the West Coast, if not other parts of the South Island,” West Coast Regional Council emergency management and natural hazards director Claire Brown says.
Power could go out and access to water, food and medication made difficult.
“The West Coast is likely to be isolated as a result of large landslides that are likely to follow from an Alpine Fault earthquake,” says Davies.
AF8 programme leader Alice Lake-Hammond says the key message of the community meetings is "don't get complacent".
"We talk about being prepared to look after yourself for one to two weeks at a minimum,” she said.
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