© Phil McCarten / Reuters
The quake happened at 1:07 a.m. GMT in the Pacific Ocean, 1084 kilometres to the north-east of the town of Tauranga, which is located on the country's North Island, USGS reported.
According to the US Geological Survey, the epicentre of the quake was located at a depth of 10 km, 196 kilometres south-east of Raoul Island.
No tsunami warning has been declared so far.
Parts of New Zealand lie within the so-called Ring of Fire, a horseshoe-shaped string of volcanoes around the Pacific Rim, where about 90 percent of the world's quakes take place.
The first line of the article is about a completely different quake from last year
2. Nothing unusual with large quakes near the Kermedec Islands
Draw a straight line from Tonga to NZ and there is a huge rift all the way (check https://earthquakes.ga.gov.au/)
3. What is this story doing on SOTT?
It didn't even rate a mention in the local news services.