Earthquakes in New Zealand occur because we are located on the boundary of two of the world's major tectonic plates – the Pacific Plate and the Australian Plate. These plates are colliding with huge force, causing one to slowly grind over, under or alongside the other.
NZ is located on the boundary of two of the worlds most major tectonic plates the pacific and Australian plates that collide with huge force causing earthquakes
I do believe the early Egyptians, being as smart as they where used a interesting method of a sundial. It caught the suns shadow and they where able to use it to tell the time.