Justice Minister Andrew Little says the magnitude 7 earthquake that struck Indonesia was "pretty terrifying".
At least 82 people are believed to have died after the quake hit Lombok early on Sunday evening (local time) at a depth of 10km.
The quake comes a week after a magnitude 6.4 quake killed 14 people on the island and briefly stranded hundreds of hikers on the slopes of a volcano.
Mr Little was in Lombok for a counter-terrorism meeting when the quake hit.
He told RNZ, "There was pretty violent shaking, people fell to ground and it was fairly prolonged then there was a massive power outage and went dark."
The quake caused a power outage and delegates at the meeting were evacuated to the Lombok airport, Mr Little said.
"The lower floors we went down there was more damage visible certainly than there was at the top."
Having been through the 2011 Canterbury earthquake, Mr Little said he was aware it was a violent shake.
"Because we were at the top of a building it was shaking quite a lot and a lot of things [were] falling over. I was seated at the time, so I pretty much stayed where I was.
"By the time I thought 'This is going on a bit long' there were too many people under the table for me to join them but it stopped shortly after that and then it was just about picking everybody up accounting for everyone and getting out of there."
Power cuts were affecting most of the island of Lombok, media cited the head of the local disaster mitigation agency as saying. The extent of damage was not yet clear.
Travellers at the international airports in Bali and Lombok were thrown into panic and there was minor damage to the buildings, but operations were not disrupted, officials said.
The quake was felt for several seconds in Bali, where people ran out of houses, hotels, and restaurants.
"All the hotel guests were running, so I did too. People filled the streets," said Michelle Lindsay, an Australian tourist. "A lot of officials were urging people not to panic."
Other witnesses said the initial quake grew in intensity over several seconds, rattling windows and doors, and there were many aftershocks.
The country's disaster management agency urged people to stay away from the sea. However, an initial warning of a tsunami with waves of up to half a metre was later withdrawn.
Civil Defence said there was no tsunami threat to New Zealand.
The quake was followed by a 4.9 aftershock.
Reuters/Newshub.
