The quake, which struck at 3:52pm (0252 GMT), was centred in the North Island about 115 kilometres (71 miles) northeast of the capital city Wellington, the US Geological Survey said.
The tremor hit at a depth of 27 kilometres and was widely felt throughout the North and South islands. It was followed by a series of smaller aftershocks.
‘I’ve seen the neighbours and they’re a bit shaken up but apart from that no damage,’ Brian Smith of Eketahuna, near the centre of the quake, told Radio New Zealand, describing the tremor as as a sharp jolt.
‘My wife was outside in the garden and she said she couldn’t stand up and had to sit down.’
New Zealand’s GeoNet put the quake at a magnitude of 6.2, but had it at a shallower depth of 10 kilometres.
Some houses in the small township of Eketahuna suffered broken windows and structural damage but police said there had been no reports of injuries.
In Eketahuna, the local supermarket manager Tanmay Patel said the quake, which tossed merchandise from shelves, was terrifying.
‘This is something I never want to have again. Felt like the roof was going to fall off,’ he told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
Pam Lochore, wife of All Blacks great Brian Lochore, said photographs had fallen off shelves and ‘a rugby ball went flying across the room’ in their home at Masterton in the North Island’s south.
The tremor hit at a depth of 27 kilometres and was widely felt throughout the North and South islands. It was followed by a series of smaller aftershocks.
‘I’ve seen the neighbours and they’re a bit shaken up but apart from that no damage,’ Brian Smith of Eketahuna, near the centre of the quake, told Radio New Zealand, describing the tremor as as a sharp jolt.
‘My wife was outside in the garden and she said she couldn’t stand up and had to sit down.’
New Zealand’s GeoNet put the quake at a magnitude of 6.2, but had it at a shallower depth of 10 kilometres.
Some houses in the small township of Eketahuna suffered broken windows and structural damage but police said there had been no reports of injuries.
In Eketahuna, the local supermarket manager Tanmay Patel said the quake, which tossed merchandise from shelves, was terrifying.
‘This is something I never want to have again. Felt like the roof was going to fall off,’ he told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
Pam Lochore, wife of All Blacks great Brian Lochore, said photographs had fallen off shelves and ‘a rugby ball went flying across the room’ in their home at Masterton in the North Island’s south.