People in the lower North Island were awoken by an earthquake that struck near Paraparaumu this morning.
The 4.9 magnitude quake struck 30 kilometres north-west of Paraparaumu just after 6.30am at a depth of 26km.
GoeNet described the shaking as "moderate", with over 20,000 people reporting it.
"The whole room was shaking for a brief moment, probably for about two seconds," a person holidaying in Wellington told 1News.
"Didn’t realise it was an earthquake until about two seconds after it had happened.
"I thought someone had dropped a large trolley of room service upstairs."
The quake was also felt by GeoNet staff.
"The earthquake was felt in our National Geohazards Monitoring Centre in Lower Hutt, who heard the quake coming and report it had definite primary and secondary wave arrivals, which makes the quake feel longer," it said in a post.
SHARE ME