One person commenting on Geonet’s Facebook page described it as “pretty noisy, almost like a double shake with lots of leading noise and mild shaking then a momentous quiet then the main shaking kicked in”.
Another person said they woke up to “a big jolt and dishes rattling”.
A Whanganui resident said they thought it was going to “push their couch over”.
Another poster described “hearing it but not really feeling it”.
“Thought it was a truck coming that didn’t arrive. Rattled my door but just felt uneasy didn’t feel any jolt or rumble.”
A person living in Taranaki said it rattled enough to dislodge a fixed item in their home.
“Knocked a picture off my wall at my place in Ōpunake.”
Geonet posted that the late-night shake affected those in the Whanganui Basin.
It described it as 70km west of Levin and felt across the lower North Island and top of the South Island.