We last had a big earthquake in 1855.
It's the reason Wellington's actually a city because before that there wasn't enough flat land around the hills/cliffs/islands - the Te Aro flat, Lyall Bay and Kilbernie were all swamps/underwater.
I'm most worried about my cousin's house getting looted. It's huge and old and people have broken in a gazillion times over the years - and they've had to leave it because it's structurally unsound, being, y'know, made of bricks and concrete close to 200 years old. It's so sad, though. They worked so hard to afford that place and then restored it painstakingly over about 30 years. Ultimately, it is just a dwelling, though. Better bricks than bodies.