Strong earthquake felt in North Island

A strong earthquake centred near Taihape has been widely felt around the North Island.

On GeoNet more than 2400 people have reported feeling the 5.4 earthquake, that was centred 35km north-east of Taihape at a depth of 39 kilometres.

It struck at 6:42 last night.

The GNS duty seismologist John Ristau said given the depth of the earthquake it's unlikely there'd be any significant aftershocks to come.

"Typically at this depth there's not as many aftershocks."

So far there have been no reports of any aftershocks on the GeoNet site.

Mr Ristau said it was quite common to have these sorts of deep earthquakes in the area where this evening's quake struck.

He said the depth of the tremor also meant that it would have been felt over a wider surface area, but not as strongly as a shallow quake.

He added those who felt the earthquake would likely have felt two sharp jolts.

Brenda, based in Tauranga tweeted, "that was scary".

Just watching #RWC news and was jolted out of celebration mode by #EQNZ magnitude 5.4 39K deep 35km north east of Taihape

— Robyn (@serendipitynz) November 1, 2015

Robyn, in Napier, tweeted her Rugby World Cup celebrations were disrupted by the quake.

"Just watching #RWC news and was jolted out of celebration mode by #EQNZ."