A fourth tremor has hit New Zealand after thousands were already evacuated amid fears of a tsunami.
The country's emergency management agency went on to say that the large waves have now passed and therefore the threat level for a tsunami has been downgraded.
People living on parts of the coast were told to evacuate their homes and get to high ground immediately following a third quake with a magnitude of 8.1 shortly before 8pm GMT.
It had struck off the north-east of the country near Kermadec Islands Region.
That quake followed an earlier one that measured 6.9 followed by another measuring 7.4.
The fourth tremor measured a magnitude of 6.5 on the Richter scale, it has been reported.
At around 10pm GMT people on the ground began reporting that the sea was going out in Whangarei, with streams and rivers also emptying.
An hour later the first of the waves were spotted racing towards the coast.
Hundreds of residents were chaotically fleeing homes, workplaces and schools to get to higher ground following the initial warning, New Zealand Herald reported.
Earlier, parents spoke of their desperate attempts to move through grid locked traffic to get their kids away from school.
Raiha Jackson, from Whakatane, said people were rushing with their children into fields away from the coast because the roads were too busy.
Ōhope resident Leslie Peake said fleeing cars were stuck bumper-to-bumper on roads out of the town, with the hilltops packed full of people looking out to the sea.
New Zealand's National Emergency Management Agency said the first waves would arrive on New Zealand's north shores by about 9:45 a.m local time.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said: "Hope everyone is ok out there - especially on the East Coast who would have felt the full force of that earthquake (the map here shows just how many people were reporting it across the country)."
Downgrading the threat level on Friday the National Emergency Management agency said: "All people who evacuated can now return."
