The Ministry of Civil Defence and Emergency Management (CDEM) lifted New Zealand's tsunami warnings at 2pm yesterday, following Chile's magnitude 8.3 quake on Thursday.
The violent tremor sent waves ashore that were up to 50cm above normal sea level when they reached the Chatham Islands, and up to 30cm above normal on the east coast of New Zealand.
In Dunedin, the waves showed themselves as a squiggly line on Port Otago's normally smooth tide gauge for Otago Harbour.
Dunedin City Council civil defence manager Neil Brown said the gauge data showed ''abnormal behaviour on the sea'', which was to be expected.
''The curve from high to low tide is normally reasonably smooth and predictable. At one point you can see there seems to be a series of little wiggly lines, and that's probably the impact of the tsunami.
''You can definitely observe changes in the sea behaviour at the period.''
The erratic measurements began about 2am yesterday and continued into last night.
There were no eyewitness reports of any noticeable increase in wave height along Otago's coast, but predictions of a 20cm 30cm increase along Otago's coast had proven to be ''probably pretty accurate'', he said.
Some after effects of the tsunami could continue to be felt today, resulting in ''unusual water conditions'' for up to 36 hours after the event, CDEM director Sarah Stuart-Black said.
The public were warned to ''be cautious and use discretion before going into the water or going out in small boats''.
