Quake rocks region

When the ground began to shake as a magnitude 6 earthquake rocked the region, Brooke Mitchell's toddler slept through it as everyone else ran for cover.

The Masterton Farmers worker was in Vodafone with her 2-year-old, Isaiah, and her friend at 2.31pm yesterday when a 6.2 earthquake hit 10km southeast of Seddon, rocking the Wellington and Wairarapa regions. A series of aftershocks followed.

Ms Mitchell said she got the fright of her life when the floor began to rock, but pushed her boy to safety.

"I pushed him under a shelf in the shop - he slept through the whole thing.

"It was pretty scary. I didn't want it to go on much longer or get any worse. I hate them. I highly doubt it will be the last one though," she said.

Friends Jaimee Pittman, from Masterton, and Courtney Bull, from Wellington, were shopping in Farmers at the time of the first shake.

Miss Pittman said the jolt was terrifying: "I felt it and grabbed her [Miss Bull]. We ran out of the shop."

Miss Bull said it wasn't as bad as the quake in Wellington last month which forced the closure of many buildings and streets in the capital.

"To tell you the truth, I'm over them," she said. She was desperately trying to get hold of her flatmate in Wellington when the Times-Age caught up with her. "I'm really worried. It would have been worse there."

Farmers closed later in the afternoon.

One Farmers staff member was at the glassware stand when the table she was stocking began swaying. "Everything started rattling and I thought 'We never touched that' and then I realised and ran and stood next to one of the pillars. It was pretty scary," she said.

Meanwhile, Masterton's Julie Deacon was inside Paper Plus when the earthquake shook the shop.

She looked petrified and was still shaking 10 minutes later.

"It freaked me a bit. It was a big one. I was scared as."

At St Mary's School, in Carterton, reporter Gerald Ford caught the moment when a disciplined class went "drop, cover and hold".

"It was very impressive," he said.

Between the first shake at 2.31pm and 2.53pm, nine aftershocks registering 2 to 5.9 were recorded.

Cellphone networks were overloaded for several hours.