Earthquake hits Wellington!

Well, we've been here 3 months and we've just felt our first earthquake!! At about 9:30pm last night we were sitting on the sofa when we felt 3 little jolts! How exciting! After wondering for a few seconds whether we should be hiding under the table, we settled down to watch the rest of our film! Apparently it was 5.3 on the Richter Scale and there were loads of others yesterday that we didn't feel at all! Here's the report from www.stuff.co.nz:

Seven quakes in nine hours jolt North Island

Seven earthquakes within nine hours jolted parts of the North Island yesterday, with the biggest reaching 5.3 on the Richter scale.

The first, at 1.38pm, measured 4.4 on the Richter scale and was centred 30km northwest of Porirua at a depth of 50km, the Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences said.
It was likely to have been widely felt throughout the Wellington region and in the Marlborough Sounds.

The second earthquake, measuring 3.6, hit at 5.19pm and was centred 20km west of Hastings at a depth of 20km.
The next five were centred 40km southeast of Martinborough and were at a depth of 15km to 25km.
The most recent, measuring 5.2 on the Richter scale, struck at 10.26pm last night.
GNS said the quake would have been widely felt in the Wairarapa and Wellington regions.

It followed a 5.3 magnitude quake emanating from the same area about 50 minutes earlier.

Earlier quakes from the same area hit at 6.54pm and 7.24pm measuring 3.8 and 3.7 respectively.
Both earthquakes were likely to have been felt on the Wairarapa coast, GNS said.

Mr Miller said earthquakes were common in the Martinborough area, but it was a "little unusual" to have so many of them in such a short period of time.
It was too early to say if the multiple quakes were a "cluster event" or a coincidence, he said.
"Sometimes you can get a cluster of earthquakes, like in Rotorua last year there was a period of about one week where there were lots and lots of earthquakes."

Another possibility was that they were a series of foreshocks, followed by a main event and aftershocks.
Police said there had been no injuries or reports of damage.