BREAKING NEWS: An earthquake has been felt across New Zealand's lower South Island.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The 6.0 magnitude quake at 2.29pm was located 30 km northwest of Wanaka. It was at a depth of 5km.
Buildings in Queenstown and Wanaka were swaying for several seconds.
There are no immediate reports of damage.
A second and lighter shake followed 10 minutes later. It was located 20km west of Wanaka at a depth of 11km and was a magnitude 3.4.
Wanaka attraction Puzzling World was evacuated.
"It was significant, we evacuated quick because we didn't know whether it was going to get worse," Heidi Landsborough of Puzzling World said.
"It was a bit difficult because we had a few people who thought it was part of the experience."
Nobody at Puzzling World was injured.
Wanaka Tourism Office general manager James Helmore said the shake built up quite quickly and went on for more than 15 seconds.
"It gave us all a bit of a shock," he said.
"There may be some minor damage in plastering" he said, but there was none he could see at that moment.
His office is in the centre of Wanaka on the third floor.
People were still working along the waterfront as normal, he said.
Wanaka real estate agent Harry Briggs said he ran from his first floor office in Helwick Street.
"I wasn't staying in the building."
He said most people in the Wanaka shopping mall fled to the safety of the street outside.
The earthquake was the largest he had felt for five or six years.
"It was quite strong and sharp. It lasted for about 30 seconds."
GeoNet geohazards information manager Kevin Fenaughty said the earthquake was felt in the southern half of the South Island.
There were reports of strong shaking in Wanaka, where he expected "maybe some things to come off shelves". He was not expecting any major structural damage to have occurred.
Moderate shaking was felt in Dunedin, Alexandra and Queenstown, Fenaughty added.
The quake occured 30km from Wanaka, towards the mountains, and was not near any other population centres.
GeoNet had no reason to believe this quake was related to the 6.2 quake off the Kaikoura coast on April 17, Fenaughty said.
"They're far enough apart not to be directly related," he said.
"It's just very coincidental." Stuff.co.nz
