Wellington rattled by magnitude 4.9 earthquake felt by thousands

Wellington has been rattled by a nearby earthquake this evening.

GeoNet’s latest report put the quake at 4.9 magnitude.

It struck shortly after 9pm in the Cook Strait around 25km north-west of Wellington, and at a depth of 22km.

Over 30,000 people have reported feeling the quake so far, with GeoNet placing the shaking at the “moderate” level.

“The quake seemed to last a decent amount of time and seemed noisy compared to others,” one person said.

“You could hear the noise before the shaking became noticeable. It was one of those ones where you feared the epicentre could be somewhere else as it lasted quite some time - at least 30 seconds.”

A M4.9 earthquake with moderate shaking has occurred in the Cook Strait at 9:09 pm tonight. It was 22 km deep and widely felt through central New Zealand and we have received over 30,000 felt reports.
Another reminder that earthquakes can occur anywhere in New Zealand at any time pic.twitter.com/xtKzAlUkoN

— GeoNet (@geonet) November 6, 2025

Another person said the shaking began quickly and made a “big noisy bang” as it shook their house.

“Made the cat nervous, but was over before you could really think about doing anything,” they said.

“Left a couple of ornaments swaying.”

One person said the shaking went on for some time.

“[It] started smaller then grew, rolling shake. Windows and glassware rattling.”

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