“Good wee shake and rattle here in Picton,” one person commented on Facebook.
“Quite a wobble,” another added.
It came just hours after a magnitude 4.0 earthquake struck near Whanganui.
That quake hit at 3.33pm, about 30km south of Whanganui, at a depth of 12km, according to GeoNet.
The shaking was classed as light, although some residents reported stronger shaking.
Locals raced to social media to describe the quake, with several comparing the rumbling to a passing heavy truck.
One person said they heard the quake approaching before feeling a sudden jolt.
“Heard it coming, thought it was the wind then bang!” they wrote on Facebook.
Another described hearing “a bang, then a rumble then the shake”, while a resident in Aramoho reported a “big jolt”.
GeoNet reminded people to drop, cover and hold during an earthquake.
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