Sir John, a retired High Court judge, who was asked to chair the Red Cross Canterbury Earthquake Appeal Commission after the September quake, said an "astonishing" response since last week's earthquake had raised just over $23 million by yesterday.
Red Cross divisions around the world were actively fundraising for Christchurch, so the amount raised would be much higher than after the September quake.
It would be added to about $10 million still not distributed from that appeal.
The remainder of $22 million Red Cross raised after September 4 had been set for allocation but was put on hold pending the response to the February 22 quake.
Experience gained through September's funds allocation was being used to streamline the process this time.
The criteria for paperwork expected from people with damaged or destroyed houses would be "much more relaxed".
The organisation had wrongly assumed people with wrecked homes would have official documents to say as much, Sir John said.
This time, mobile teams were out and about to allocate grants to people in the suburbs.
More money could be allocated to quake victims for petrol in recognition of the distances people had to travel for goods and services because of damage in the suburbs.
The tragic loss of life this time meant the appeal committee would allocate grants based on family deaths, as well as serious injury and disability.
Sir John, who was born and bred in Dunedin, said the "unbelievable" damage wrought by the quake could not be conveyed on the screen or in photos.
Sir John watched the spire of ChristChurch Cathedral topple while enduring the quake in a fourth-floor dentist's surgery on the corner of Colombo and Hereford Sts.
His drive home to Oxford, normally 40 minutes, took five and a-half hours, he said.
