A giant eagle used to promote The Hobbit film trilogy has fallen from the ceiling of Wellington airport during a severe earthquake in central New Zealand.
However, a second eagle, ridden by a sculpture of benevolent wizard Gandalf, remained fixed to the ceiling.
The quake, with a 6.3 magnitude, damaged buildings and caused rock slides and road closures, but is not believed to have caused injuries.
It was centred about 135km north of Wellington and struck at 3.52pm local time at a depth of about 23km.
Heather Gowans, who lives in the town of Masterton, about 36km from the quake centre, said: "It was really shaking and rolling. It went on for about 30 seconds . It just kept going and going and was swaying really bad.
"Everything was swaying and the place was creaking and groaning, but luckily nothing is broken.''
At the airport, the giant eagle - with a wingspan of 15m - dislodged during the quake and fell, hitting 19-year-old Lauren Stone on the head.
Stone said she and a friend were sitting beneath the eagle when its wing fell on top of their table.
"[The eagle] started shaking heaps and rattling; we jumped under the table,'' she told The Dominion Post.
"The eagle fell on top of us. We ran away ... I definitely know I was hit on the head, but it didn't hurt or anything like that . I don't think anyone really saw us, all the mums were screaming. It was quite panicked.''
An airport spokesman, Greg Thomas, said: "The Gandalf one is fine. We will be conducting an inspection on it to check it is okay.
"We are investigating what failed on the second eagle.''
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