Editorial: The night the city shook

Rotorua was rattled by a series of small earthquakes over the weekend.

Did the earth move for you too?

Rotorua was abuzz on Friday evening after one, then two, then three, then a few more earthquakes rattled the city. By later that night 12 quakes had been recorded by GeoNet, but others online, and some I spoke to on Saturday, felt more than that.

One reckoned there were 14, even though her mates only felt 12. Some online said they felt 17.

Whatever the true number, locals were certainly rattled.

Our Facebook post about the first quake ended up with nearly 300 comments and dozens of shares. The story the post linked to on our website was by far our biggest online story of the past week. There was a huge amount of interest in Rotorua's Friday night earthquakes.

Readers posted comments like: "Never known Rotorua to be this bad which is a worry. What the heck is happenin?" and "Felt like a truck hit the house. The dogs went nuts."

From reading the comments you get the impression there was either a swarm of earthquakes or a huge fleet of trucks barrelling through Rotorua on Friday night.

Maybe the date - Friday the 13th - and the impressive yet spooky yellow full moon added to the sense of unease across the city as quake followed quake.

It certainly wasn't a night like any other lately.

Around the time of the ninth earthquake GeoNet tweeted the following: "If you are watching our website you may have noticed Rotorua is having another wee swarm. This is common in the area."

If you are watching our website you may have noticed Rotorua is having another wee swarm. This is common in the area http://t.co/Vge0pL8shq

Indeed GeoNet's website shows there have been 4645 earthquakes in the Tongariro/Bay of Plenty region in the past year - more than 3200 of those registering above 2 on the Richter Scale.

But try telling locals freaked out by Friday night's quakes that this sort of thing happens all the time.

If anything, let's take it as a reminder to be prepared for an emergency, should next time prove something a bit stronger.