Central New Zealand, including the capital Wellington, was shaken by a magnitude 6.3 earthquake on Monday, but there were no reports of injuries, and damage was mostly superficial.
The minute-long, rolling quake was centered in the mainly rural Wairarapa region about 120 kilometers north east of Wellington, at a depth of 50 kilometers, government seismologists at GNS Science said.
(Read more: Magnitude 6.8 earthquake shakes New Zealand)
Stock items lie on a shop floor in the small Wairarapa town of Eketahuna on January 20, 2014 after a strong 6.3-magnitude earthquake rattled New Zealand, halting train services and knocking merchandise off shelves, but with no immediate reports of major damage or injuries.Marty Melville | AFP | Getty Images
"There's been damage to houses mainly in the (Wairarapa)area, and that includes chimneys down, windows broken," a spokesman at Police National headquarters told Reuters.
"We've had a lot of rock falls and slips on highways in the area, and the rest has been pretty minor."
The quake was felt from the middle of the North Island down through the upper parts of the South Island. More than a dozen aftershocks measuring up to 4.5 were recorded.
