A shallow 4.2 magnitude earthquake has been detected near East Cape.
The tremor, at 2.16pm was centred 55km east of Tokomaru Bay at a depth of nine kilometres, GeoNet reported.
It rated six for Mercalli Intensity - the power with which it was felt on the Earth's surface.
There were no immediate reports of damage.
It followed this morning's strong aftershock in the swarm of quakes affecting the area south of Wellington.
The magnitude 4.9 event occurred at 11.10am and was centred 30km east of Seddon in Marlborough at a depth of 16km.
Twitter users reported the incident.
Holly Walker said: "That was a big one!"
MP Peter Dunne said: "Here we go again - more shakes."
Peter Griffin said: "Decent little tremor in Wellington just now."
A user called Pipssqueaks said: "Damn it, wish I didn't keep feeling like I should be diving under my desk."
And another user called Kiwichettan said: "Over the past couple of weeks, being at work has felt rather like being in a plane going through mild turbulence."
The tremor is one of the strongest since a swarm of quakes shook the lower North and upper South islands almost a fortnight ago, with the largest, a
