Amora Hotel guests gather in a carpark after an earthquake on November 14, 2016 in Wellington, New Zealand. [Photo/VCG]

GeoNet scientist Sara McBride said the quake was the largest recorded in New Zealand since a magnitude 7.8 quake in the Dusky Sound, in the southwest of the South Island, in 2009.

"We can say one thing with certainty: there will be more earthquakes to come in this area," McBride said in a statement.

"It looks like we've got two separate but related quakes going on. Our reports indicate that the combination of these two quakes lasted two minutes, with the most severe shaking at around 50 seconds. It was widely felt throughout both the North and South Islands. It looks like one was a strike-slip and the other was a thrust fault."

A tsunami warning from Wellington, on the North Island, to Banks Peninsula, on the east of the South Island, was cancelled late Monday afternoon, said the MCDEM.

New Zealand is frequently rattled by earthquakes, most of which do no damage and cause no injuries, but Monday's tremor brought back memories of the 6.3-magnitude quake that killed 185 people in Christchurch in February 2011.