Akhir 1432 H. / 11 March 2011, SPA -- A minor tsunami from the Japanese earthquake reached northern New Zealand early Saturday with waves of 15 to 20 centimetres recorded in some areas, dpa reported. Civil defence officials said they could build to up to 1 metre during the morning and urged people to stay away from beaches and estuaries. However, evacuations from low-lying areas were thought unlikely. What they described as a minor land threat was confined to the Northland province, the Bay of Islands and the Chatham Islands, about 700 kilometres south-east of the mainland. The 90-mile Beach, a prominent Northland tourist attraction, was closed and authorities in Auckland, the country's biggest city, advised boat owners to remain in port. Ken Gledhill, a geophysicist with GNS Science, told the TV3 channel that reports indicated the low-lying island states of the South Pacific appeared "to have got off pretty lightly" from the tsunami.
