The Two Rivers Cafe in Cheviot felt the Thursday morning shake.

A rearing horse and bouncing ute alerted one Canterbury vet to a severe earthquake that rocked the region.

GeoNet said the 5.2-magnitude quake hit at a depth of 12 kilometres about 8.01am on Thursday.

It was centred 20km southwest of Cheviot. GeoNet had received more than 1300 "felt reports" by 8.45am, including some from Auckland, Hokitika and Banks Peninsula.

GEONET According to Geonet, the 5.2-magnitude quake hit at a depth of 12 kilometres about 8.01am on Thursday, 20km southwest of Cheviot.

There have not yet been any reports of damage.

North Canterbury Veterinary Clinic vet Rob Bruning said the tremor made his ute "bounce around on the road, it looked a bit weird".

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"I was just about to start working on a horse and it started rearing and the dog was hiding hiding away."

He said he thought animals could sense when the earthquakes were about to hit.

Clinic coordinator Emma Le Pine said it was "certainly a good jolt".

"It makes you nervous and really stirs you up," she said.

The quake was "a decent shock" for Cheviot's Two Rivers Cafe manager Sandra Forbes.

"It did go for quite a while. It's very unnerving, it's not a very nice feeling," she said.

The tremor was felt strongly at the Cheviot Tea Rooms as employee Sandra Kelsher said she had felt three shakes throughout the morning.

"The first was a gentle rock, enough to shake you awake," she said.

"After that there was a pretty good jolt – enough to give you a bit of a fright because you didn't know it was coming – and one more later in the morning that I could just feel."

There were two North Canterbury tremors earlier on Thursday morning, after a strong quake on Wednesday.

A magnitude 4.7 quake centred 20km southwest of Cheviot at a depth of 9km rattled the area at 5.17am on Thursday. GeoNet rated it as strong and within 20 minutes nearly 500 people reported feeling it.

A few minutes later the area was again rocked, with a 3.6 magnitude quake, centred in the same place, striking at a depth of 8km. GeoNet rated it as moderate and received around 470 reports from people who felt it within 20 minutes.

On Wednesday, a strong magnitude 4.8 quake hit the same area at a depth of 10km around 10.20am, followed several hours later by a magnitude 3.7 quake 12km deep.