More aftershocks are expected over the next couple of days.
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The Australian Bureau of Meteorology said there was no tsunami threat to Australia.
People reported feeling moderate to weak shaking from the quake.
Tairawhiti Civil Defence Emergency Management advises people to take their radios with them and listen to further instructions and advice from Civil Defence.
“It was very violent”, he said.
A short time after the large quake, Hawaii’s Emergency Management Agency tweeted that there was no tsunami threat to the state.
“We have much less analysis and much less information than we would if it was travelling a long distance”.
Pat Seymour, a local council politician in the Gisborne area, told the New Zealand Herald the natural disaster was “quite vigorous”.
Residents of low-lying Tologa Bay, north of Gisborne, have been urged to evacuate their homes.
There have been no immediate reports of injuries.
RNZ listeners reported feeling the quake as far south as Akaroa and as far North as Kerikeri in Northland.
“The house starts to shake, and it was a long, long rolling natural disaster”, Hathaway said.
“It was one of our big national tragedies, and here I am in Auckland, thinking I’m safe”, Hathaway said.
“After checking around to makes sure there were no strangers on the deck I eventually concluded it was an natural disaster”.
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The quake follows a 5.7 tremor that shook the same area yesterday.
