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Sonny Bill Williams lucky...

Sonny Bill Williams has emerged as one of the lucky survivors in yesterday's destructive 6.3 earthquake. The All Blacks star was relaxing in a pool when the quake hit the greater Christchurch area.

"It was a pretty crazy afternoon," Williams said. "I was at the pool and it came from nowhere. It was unexpected, especially as everyone was just starting to get settled after the last earthquake".

Williams and the friend he was with left the pool immediately and made their way to the streets only to find Christchurch in a state of chaos.

"Going through the city and seeing the destruction it was a lot worse that the last earthquake," he said. "We started walking and it was crazy. There were fires and it looked like there were people trapped. The worst thing about it was you just felt helpless."

The Canterbury representative confirmed that his own family was safe, but seeing the devastation firsthand has hit home.

"It really puts things in perspective. The thing that we do [rugby] is just a game and there’s more to life. This is something I’ll never forget."

Call 0800 RED CROSS (0800 733 276) to find out whereabouts of friends and famil

Quake shakes icebergs into Tasman Glacier's Lake...

The earthquake that struck Christchurch today was so powerful it caused huge icebergs to break off and cave into the Tasman Lake.

The magnitude 6.3 earthquake shook large icebergs in the Tasman Glacier's Terminal Lake, sending about 30 million tonnes of ice loose, 3news.co.nz reports.

The pieces floated into the lake at Aoraki Mt Cook National Park.

Tourism manager for Aoraki Mt Cook Alpine Village, Denis Callesen, says the quake caused a major calving from the Basal and Terminal Face of the Glacier

“We have procedures to deal with this type of event and for some time have stayed 800m away from the Terminal Face as we suspected it was becoming unstable,” he was quoted as saying.

Passengers aboard two tour boats also felt the disturbance, experiencing waves of up to 3.5m for about 30 minutes.

Tourism manager Denis Callesen told the NZ Herald that the dangers for the passengers could have been worse if not for safety procedures that were put in place.

The calving was the third biggest event in the history of the Terminal Lake, which is now over 6km long and 2km wide in places, after a huge quake.