Just prior to the event a real earthquake struck the Wanganui region at 9.21am. The magnitude 2.8 quake, at a depth of 11km, struck 25km south of the city.
In Dunedin many businesses and organisations took part in the 9.26am drill.
Hwoever Christchurch's famous department store, Ballantynes, on the fringe of the ever-decreasing CBD red zone, chose not to enter into the shakeout. Just 86,000 Cantabs did.
Shoppers, walkers, and business people at Cashel Mall this morning barely blinked when the Civil Defence sirens sounded at 9.26am.
Some were even laughing at the idea that Christchurch people need to practice earthquake drills.
"We've had drills every day for the last two years," said Re:Start director Paul Lonsdale, behind the rejuvenated Cashel Mall.
Friends, and stay-at-home mums, Meg Ford, 34, and Rebecca Taylor, 35, were two who did not take part today.
"We've had 12,500 aftershocks, or earthquakes, so we know what to do," said Mrs Taylor.
"We won't really stop for anything less than a five (magnitude)".
Mrs Ford said Christchurch was "underwhelmed" by the drill.
She also questioned whether it was a good thing for school children to have to take part, given what they've been through since the Canterbury earthquake sequence started on September 4, 2010.
But she accepted it was a positive thing for the rest of New Zealand.
Tony Goulter, 23, unemployed, from New Brighton in Christchurch's eastern suburbs, wasn't aware of the drill.
He shrugged off the sirens as "cops or ambulance maybe" and went about his business.
On February 22, 2011, he was on a bus passing the CTV Building, which collapsed and killed 115 people.
He witnessed another man crushed to death by falling masonry, and had a woman save his life when she pulled him away form other falling rubble.
Mr Goulter said he just wanted other parts of the country to learn from the mistakes people made in February last year.
"Most of us know what to do now in a quake, but we didn't really know last year. If we knew more, maybe we wouldn't have lost so many people.
"So this Shake Out has to be a good thing."
