The 5.3 magnitude quake struck just before 3pm at a depth of 150 kilometres, 80 kilometres north of French Pass off the coast of the South Island.
On Geonet people reported feeling the tremor in greater Wellington, the central north island and as far south as Christchurch.
Android phone users had extra warning - with an alert sent out 10 to 15 seconds before the tremor hit.
It comes from a new safety feature recently rolled out by Google across the Android operating system.
