The early morning sun, pictured from Poukawa, south of Hastings, grabs an opportunity on Saturday, but had to yield to the clouds for much of the weekend. Photo / Paul Taylor.

A shaky 'last weekend of summer' in Hawke's Bay

Author: Hawkes Bay Today,
Publish Date: Sun, 27 Feb 2022, 3:52PM

A spate of earthquakes felt in Hawke's Bay over the weekend was among at least nine recorded in the region in the last week.

The latest were five shakes all centred just east of Hastings and at depths of 26-28km depth, from 9.17pm on Friday to 5.18am on Sunday, according to Government seismological agency GeoNet.

While none measured over 4 on the Richter, the most severe at 10.33am on Saturday and measuring 3.9 was felt strongly in some areas, including Napier and Hastings.

It was followed 20 minutes later by a barely-felt tremor with the same origin, measuring 3.0, both being centred 5km east of Hastings.

In between almost 1250 people had logged the quake on the GeoNet website, with two reckoning it felt extreme.

Almost 550 reported feeling the second of the two shakes, mostly as "weak" or "light."

A Napier woman had her Saturday morning crossword interrupted by the jolt and subsequent vibrations of the first earthquake.

"I was racking my brain trying to remember what an extinct elephant was," she said.

"It gave me a fright and made me look up, flowers on the table were moving and our fridge was rattling.''

On Friday night, a weak 3.3 earthquake was felt 10km west of Hastings at 9.17pm, at 2.56pm on Saturday another 5km east of Hastings measured 2.6, and at 5.18am on Sunday another measured 3.1deg. It was a similar depth to the Saturday morning events.

Earlier in the week, three earthquakes were reported centred near Wairoa on Tuesday, the most severe 30km southwest of the town at 7.44am and measuring 3.2.

Another was reported centred just south of Dannevirke on Monday at 2.15pm and measuring 3.0, just under two hours before the week's most severe nationwide, west of Marlborough township Seddon and measuring 5.6.

Meanwhile, while twin-cities weather on Sunday was overcast, Hawke's Bay seemed to have not had quite the showers and rain that had been forecast for the last weekend in February, also known as the last weekend of summer.

Little more is forecast for this week, but with the change of seasons obvious as maximum temperatures were not expected to peak over 22deg.