Eastern Christchurch residents press Key for answers

A handful of residents from the eastern suburbs of quake-ravaged Christchurch waded through mud and silt to vent their frustrations at Prime Minister John Key today.

The area was severely damaged in last week's 6.3 magnitude tremor, and many who live there still lack basis utilities such as power and running water.

Mr Key today flew into the suburb of Bexley to see a damaged substation and talk to locals about their plight.

"Obviously it is utter devastation, you can see the enormity of the task in front of the services here," he told reporters.

"It's not a simple matter of plugging back the power, there are breakages to cables all over the place, miles of silt, broken roads and buildings."

During a tour of the area, resident Laura McConchie approached Mr Key, asking how he would help those who had lost their homes.

"What's happening? We want to know if we're going to be paid out for our house and land," she said.

"There's lots of people, there's elderly, there's couples ... their stuff is sitting in sewage because they've got nowhere to put it, they just want to move on, they want to be paid out."

Mr Key said some homes would be impossible to repair and "the fastest thing we can do is to give you a cheque".

But he could not say when such a cheque would arrive.

Tracey Bolton said while her home was still livable, she had no power or water.

"We don't really want to uplift the kids even more, we're happy to stay in the house so just a toilet or something would be great," she said.

Mr Key later acknowledged the "utter devastation" of the eastern suburbs and moved to reassure residents and the wider public that the Government was doing "everything possible".

"Civil Defence has given me an assurance they've done everything they can but that doesn't mean it's been easy," he said.

"The people we've met this morning are going through tremendous hardship.

"In a perfect world we would click our fingers and there would be tens of thousands of portaloos and everything we want," he said.

"But we don't live in a perfect world ... we're accommodating people as best we can."

Mr Key was also asked why people in the eastern suburbs felt they had been forgotten.

"I think it's the extent of the damage here," he said.

"You can see how enormous it is. People want to go to their homes and I appreciate that, but it isn't easy."

He said the inquiry into the earthquake and the rescue, recovery and relief operations -- which he announced yesterday -- would deal with the way the eastern suburbs had been treated.