Locals have been left shaken following five earthquakes which struck in the lower South Island yesterday, including two above magnitude 5.
Two shallow earthquakes struck near Milford Sound within an hour on Wednesday evening, measuring magnitude 5.5 and 5.6, which caused moderate shaking across the region.
Thousands of people reported feeling the quakes, which struck northeast of Piopiotahi/Milford Sound at a depth of 5km.
In the hour between 7pm and 8pm there were three smaller "light" earthquakes in the region also reported on GeoNet.
In a post online this morning, Queenstown Lakes District Council (QLDC) said it was "a bit of a shaky one last night!"
"Crews have inspected the road network following last night's earthquakes and have cleared some minor rockfall on SH6 Kawarau Gorge," a spokesperson said.
"If you didn't spot the information sent out last night, Edith Cavell Bridge is currently closed until engineers inspect the structure at first light.
QLDC said traffic from Arthurs Point should detour via Malaghans Rd and through Dalefield.
"The team are aiming to open one lane of Glenorchy-Queenstown Road (between One Mile Roundabout and Sunshine Bay turn-off) from 2.00pm this afternoon.
"The lane heading into Queenstown will remain closed until at least Thursday next week while repair work is complete following a recent slip – traffic can still detour over Fernhill Rd.
Otherwise, the council said conditions across the wider network were "mostly dry with temperatures ranging from 6C - 14C".
At 9.10pm last night, GeoNet said it expected further earthquakes to occur, with a small chance a larger earthquake could occur.
"Most earthquakes will be of a smaller magnitude and unlikely to be felt.
It said it had recorded 30 earthquakes in the area and were "regularly detecting new earthquakes".
"The earthquakes are occurring 15-20km south-east of the Alpine Fault.
"While these earthquakes are close to the Alpine Fault, our sensor network in the area allows us to confidently locate them as occurring on a separate fault and producing different movement than what we would expect on the Alpine Fault.
"These quakes were a mixture of strike-slip [sideways] and reverse [upwards] faulting," it said.
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