More than 60,600 people reported feeling the quake on Geonet in the following half-hour.
The majority of those people reported the quake as feeling “light”, while 72 reported it as extreme.
It was felt from the top of the North Island to the bottom of the South Island.
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People in central Christchurch felt the slow roll, which lasted about a minute.
The last strong earthquake, also measuring 6, was 5km south of Te Aroha, a town in the north of the North Island, on February 3.
