i read today of a tsunami heading for new zealand following a very big earthquake near samoa. i hope olly and any other new zealand readers are ok.

Thanks for the concern Latishya. The Tsunami alert has been cancelled. There were a couple of swells come in but nothing to write home about. Apparently in Samoa there were reports of 3 metre waves but fortunately the Tsunami defence system kicked in and cleared the coastal areas quite promptly. My family were safe as they are currnetly enjoying Snowboarding on Mt Ruapehu in the central plateau of the North Island. Daddy has to stay behind and pay for it. C'est la vie.

I spoke too soon. There are unconfirmed reports of some deaths in Samoa.

i read now at least 14 people in each of the Samoas

Not good. But, glad to know you're safe, ollster! And let's hope there won't be a tsunami big enough to take people off a mountain. Ever.

The Western Pacific is really getting it. Philippines hit really
hard, then Vietnam, Samoa, Indonesia (again.) Samoa is a
"disaster area", declared so by President.

Ki ora Olly.
Are tsunamis occurring more and more frequently? It is interesting to go down this list here:
Link