Thousands of people have reported feeling a moderate 4.9 earthquake near Waipukurau in Hawke's Bay.
Photo: GeoNet
Geonet says the quake was centred 5km north of the town at a depth of 36km.
It occurred just before 5pm.
Within 15 minutes more than 6000 people had registered their ratings of the quake on the Geonet website.