Julie Taylor, who grew up in Tauranga and has been living in Newton for the past eight years, said it was the worst earthquake she had ever felt.
Luckily the human toll was minimal - with only four people reportedly sustaining minor injuries.
The swarm of earthquakes comes just a few short years after the magnitude 7.1 earthquake hit Christchurch that sparked a seismic sequence that changed the city irreparably.
The previously unknown Greendale Fault beneath the Canterbury Plains which jolted sleeping Cantabrians resulted in a zero death toll - largely attributed to the time of day it struck - and many residents thought they had escaped unscathed.
The region kept on shaking, and the shallower 6.3-magnitude quake of February 22 2011 claimed 185 lives.
Hundreds of buildings in that city have been demolished, billions of dollars in insurance and Government cash has been paid to owners of quake-damaged houses and businesses.
The ongoing impact of these quakes has been widespread.
House insurance bills have more than doubled for some home owners under sweeping changes imposed after the Christchurch earthquakes.
The scale of the changes has come as a shock to many families, who are already stretched by rises in charges for contents and car insurance, electricity, rates and water.
Let's hope there are no more large earthquakes in the near future - for all our sakes.
