One person said it was the “worst l ever felt in my 78 years”, while another wrote: “Might have been the longest and strongest I’ve ever experienced”.
“You could hear the massive rumble before the shaking. Was scary,” one person wrote.
“Was like a bomb the floor in my shed jumped upwards then the shaking started … I thought the mountain woke up,” another wrote.
Others reported household items falling or breaking.
One described the shaking as “violent” and said it had “smashed stuff”, while another reported: “things crashed and broke at our place”.
It’s been felt as far north as Waihi and the North Shore with people taking to social media to describe feeling small jolts.
Taranaki Civil Defence said it was a “timely reminder earthquakes can happen at any time, including when most of us would rather be asleep”.
“Maybe tomorrow is a good day to check the batteries in the torch, check dates on any emergency supplies and have a quick chat with the household about what you’d do in a bigger one.”
The Fire and Emergency New Zealand central communications shift manager confirmed to the Herald at 6am that no emergency calls relating to the earthquake had been received.
On September 5, a magnitude 4.9 earthquake struck 30km northwest of Paraparaumu at 6.30am.
24 hours later a magnitude 4.2 earthquake hit 5km north of Ōpunake.
A 4.8 magnitude quake also struck the Tasman Sea, 70km southwest of the small town of Waverley, on September 15 just before 11am.
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