Shaky night puts central New Zealand on edge

In the last 24 hours 220 earthquakes of magnitude 4 and over have struck the upper South Island and lower North Island. Photo / Geonet

Large tremors overnight have kept quake-hit central New Zealand on edge with a strong late night jolt in Seddon and a "sharp shock" striking Paraparaumu.

The weekend ended on a shaky note for much of the lower North Island and top of the South Island with two quakes - one strong - striking within 15 minutes.

Both quakes rattled already frayed nerves with nearly 10,000 people across the centre of the country reporting they had felt the first violent jolt which struck 35km west of Paraparaumu at 9.31pm.

Those on the Kapiti Coast described the moderate 4.5 tremor as short and sharp.

Melissa Burnett on Facebook described the frightening moment it struck.

"It felt like a big truck was coming through our house, I could here (sic) it coming. Scared [the] crap out of me," she posted.

Many said they experienced the jolt as a short violent burst of energy .

"Started with sharp jolt straight up through floor in Normandale," posted Dean Russell

Within 15 minutes a second larger quake struck Seddon.

The shallow 4.8 Seddon quake sent people screaming in fear as it violently jolted the top of the South Island at 9.42pm.

It was felt widely across the New Zealand with those closest to the epicentre running to check their children were safe.

Donna Keefe posted on Facebook she screamed when the quake struck.

"Blenheim rocked AGAIN. I screamed like nobody's business and scared myself. Checked on the kids upstairs and my last baby (11) was awake because she heard me screaming. So I brought her in my room and got my dog right by us. The rest of my whanau slept through it. I wish these plates would just settle down."

Others complained the quakes were taking a toll on their health with the fortnight of constant tremors robbing them of sleep.

The quake, which was at a depth of 11 km and 15 km east of the town, was also felt widely across central New Zealand and as far afield as Whangarei.

Less than half an hour after the strong shake a "moderate" 4.1 magnitude shock struck 20km southeast of Seddon, at a depth of 14km.

The shaking continued unabated overnight with a number of lesser magnitude quakes striking the Marlborough region.

Last night Geonet said the weekend was ending with a shake up in both islands.

There had been 125 earthquakes overnight with 6159 tremors in the past fortnight.

7 am update: 125 eq in last 12 hour, 220 eq in last 24 hrs (4 over M4) and 6159 eq since the M7.8 Kaikoura Earthquake. #eqnz #Kaikoura pic.twitter.com/SWKQlT0rQ6

— GeoNet (@geonet) November 27, 2016