An earthquake in Opunake reached 4.8 on the Richter scale this morning.
The quake was centred 20 kilometres north of Opunake and according to GeoNet was only 18 kilometres deep. It was felt as far north as Hamilton and as far south as Nelson.
Shortly after the first quake a 2.6 magnitude aftershock hit the region.
Hawera resident Stella Tippett 89, felt the quake but wasn’t worried, “I felt the earth start to shake so I sat down, I’ve been through worse than that.”
Just last week was the Shake Out earthquake reaction exercise drill.
There were no reports of any damage and the emergency services didn’t receive any calls for help.

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