Photo: Geonet
An earthquake and aftershocks have been felt near Taupō, after a magnitude 5.6 quake occurred just before midnight last night.
The earthquake struck 15km south-west of Taupō, at a depth of 5km.
Thousands of people reported feeling the quake on GeoNet.
In the hours since there had been 140 aftershocks, the largest 4.5, GNS Science seismic duty officer John Ristau said.
The initial quake resulted in 5400 "felt" reports from cities that included New Plymouth, Napier, Tauranga and Hamilton, he told Morning Report.
"So it was quite a widely felt earthquake considering how shallow it was because normally shallow earthquakes are felt very closely to the epicentre and not so much further away."
Taupō was at volcanic alert level one equating to minor volcanic unrest although it was not thought an eruption was imminent.
Since May there has been an increase in seismic activity which was not unusual.
"This is just the volcanic region going through its various cycles and then there's lots of faults around the region and so it just causes slips on the various faults around the area."
In September 2019 there was also a quake magnitude 5 in the Taupō region and aftershocks continued for a few days, Ristau said.
"This is just the volcanic region going through its various cycles" GNS Science seismic duty officer John Ristau