Former cricketer and broadcaster Ian Smith has shared footage of the moment he was shaken by Wednesday's severe 5.7 earthquake.
It hit just after 10.19am near Pōrangahau in Hawke's Bay not far from where Smith was broadcasting at a depth of 22km.
Footage showed the cricketing items on Smith's wall and a plant shaking in the background at his Havelock North studio as the quake hit.
"We're just having a massive earthquake here in Hawke's Bay, how's that going," Smith said.
"Everything's still shaking. My goodness, that's a massive earthquake," he said as the quake continued, shaking the webcam he was broadcasting from.
"Holy heck I've never commentated on an earthquake before - this is interesting!
"It's still going - bigger, bigger, bigger!"
A second aftershock "followed closely" Geonet said online. That one registered 5.3 and hit about four minutes after the initial quake and at a depth of 15km.
Geonet classified both quakes as "severe".
"Still going - 20 seconds or so, it's a decent one, I can promise you that. I'm not sure it's a damaging one, but it sure gets the hackles up a wee bit," Smith said.
While there's been no reports of major damage from the region, students and teachers at Pōrangahau School told Newshub they were "rattled" by the earthquakes that struck, which saw items fly off cupboards.
A spokesperson for the school told Newshub students and teachers earlier had evacuated to the local hall in case of any tsunami risk, but have since returned.
There is no tsunami threat from the quakes, National Emergency Management Agency confirmed.
