She said they had received no reports of damage yet but it was "close enough to the epicentre to shake things around".
Kaiser said a report of a 6.3 magnitude quake near Opotiki which hit a minute before was quickly downgraded to a minor quake, and it's initial high intensity report was due to it coming in such close proximity to the quake near Culverden.
Rochelle De Vera works at the Culverden Four Square, and she was in the shop this morning when the earthquake struck.
"We felt it, it was quite a big one," she said.
She said the quake had knocked shelves over, and broken stock lay strewn on the shop floor.