Wellington, March 5 NZPA - Scott Base and the Kermadec Islands were the first New Zealand sites to be hit by the tsunami from the Chile's magnitude 8.8 earthquake last weekend, but the surges of water reverberated around New Zealand like water bouncing around a bathtub.

Results from 19 sea-level gauges around the nation showed six sites had peak wave heights of over 100cm.

But at most locations the highest waves didn't arrive for some time, ranging from 1.2 hours to 26 hours after the first wave arrived.

In all cases in New Zealand, the first wave to arrive was a lift in the water level, rather than the receding tide that people often look for as a warning sign of a tsunami.

Tsunami waves arrived first at Scott Base, although the waves were small, then reached the Chatham Islands (Kaingaroa) about 11.6 hours after the earthquake in Chile.

It touched down on the North Island at East Cape nearly an hour later. The biggest waves hit Lyttelton, with a peak wave of 1.9m (crest-to-trough) arriving in mid-afternoon, six hours after the first wave.

Other peak wave heights over 100cm were measured in Chatham Islands, Gisborne, Sumner, Timaru and Whitianga.

"The tsunami was measured all along the west coast as well, but peak wave heights were much smaller (0.3-0.5 metres)," said National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research principal scientist Dr Rob Bell.

The delay in arrival of the largest waves from a distant tsunami source was because they were bouncing off continental shelves and coastal headlands. Much slower-travelling waves were "trapped" on the coast and spread along the coastline, diminishing slowly.

He said the findings provided important feedback to civil defence and emergency management agencies so that they can refine tsunami warnings work out when to scale down to a tsunami advisory.

The epicentre of the quake was about 200km northeast of where a magnitude 9.5 earthquake struck Chile in 1960. That was the largest earthquake ever recorded and resulted in a destructive tsunami that killed many thousands of people around the Pacific.

The latest big quake resulted from the Nazca tectonic plate under the floor of the Pacific Ocean being thrust under the South American plate just off the coast of Chile.