'My nan in Kawerau said she’s taken all her photos off the wall' - Bay of Plenty rocked by 'swarm of quake activity'

A shallow magnitude 4.1 earthquake jolted the eastern Bay of Plenty late last night.

The quake struck at 11.08pm, 25km west of Whakatane near the town of Kawerau.

It hit at a shallow depth of just two kilometres.

At least 575 people said they felt the earthquake on GeoNet, with most reporting moderate to weak shaking.

"My nan in Kawerau said she’s taken all her photos of the wall,” Raniera Kaio posted on Twitter.

An earlier shake of 3.9 magnitude hit just after 7.20pm.

This was followed by the 4.2 magnitude, and a further two rattles just after midnight (3.6M) and an hour later at 12.53am today (3.0M).

“Here we go again.... Don't think there's gonna be much sleep had in the Eastern BOP tonight,” one Twitter user wrote.

GeoNet said on Twitter late last night that there were at least 32 earthquakes in a “swarm of quake activity”.

“Quake swarms are pretty common in the Bay of Plenty as the area is slowly stretched.”