For many Hawke's Bay people already weary, and left wary, after several days of saturating rain, an earthquake felt widely across the region early yesterday was pretty much a case of "what next?"
The earthquake was felt at 6.47am and was centred about 25km southwest of Rotorua, at a depth of 167km.
It had a magnitude of 5.1, with GNS Science seismologist John Ristau saying the central location was ripe for it to be felt across eastern and southern regions of the North Island.
He said the North Island was on the Australian tectonic plate, with the Pacific plate pushing in deeply from the east.
The line where they met meant earthquakes could travel "very efficiently" along it. "In general, these earthquakes are not felt so much at the epicentre," he said.