A strong earthquake jolted the central North Island early on Saturday.

Geonet said the 'severe' magnitude 5.9 quake happened around five kilometres southwest of Taumarunui at 4.51am.

The earthquake was nine kilometres deep and the intensity was severe.

The quake was reportedly felt across much of the North Island, including Auckland, and as far as the top of the South.

By 6am, nearly 23,000 'felt reports' had been filed to Geonet.

At least seven aftershocks, ranging between magnitude 2.7 and 3.7, followed.

Fire and Emergency said far it had recieved only a sprinkler-related callout stemming from the big quake.