Christchurch: The jackhammers fell silent, church bells pealed and a Maori lament filled the air as New Zealand came to a standstill to mourn the estimated 240 people killed in an earthquake one week ago yesterday.
Flags were lowered to half-staff and people gathered in groups in cities and towns to bow their heads for two minutes of silence at 12:51pm, the moment when the quake struck Christchurch.
The hundreds of rescue and recovery workers in the shattered city of 350,000, who have been clambering over and through the wreckage nonstop since the quake struck, took a moment to pause and turn dusty faces to the sky or the ground. Friends and neighbours hugged each other. Traffic halted in the streets.
Show of unity
"I was born here, I've lived here all my life and I'll die here. It's my home and it hurts so much to see it in this way," said Mike Cochrane, fighting back tears.
Cochrane had climbed out of his car at one of the city's busiest intersections to sit under a tree on a traffic island to observe the commemoration, climbing back in and driving off when a second peal of bells signalled the moment of silence was over.
Nearby, Rosie MacLean had left her realtor's office to stand in the street, a spontaneous act matched by thousands of others who also preferred to be outside.
"I suppose this is about hope, really, to realise we've got a future somewhere, but that's just hard to find at the moment," she said. "I guess this means we've reached a point where we can all acknowledge it together, which is a beautiful thing."
Prime Minister John Key had asked the nation's 4.5 million people to join in a show of unity for people "enduring tragedy beyond what most of us can imagine." And they did.
In the capital, Wellington, a traditional Maori lament rang out over the Parliament building.
Police said yesterday they have pulled 155 bodies from the wreckage, and said the number of others missing and feared dead indicated a final death toll higher than previously thought.
