Elephant Rock in New Zealand

A piece of an iconic North Taranaki rock formation - Elephant Rock - has lost its trunk.

Elephant Rock sits near another renowned rock formation - the Three Sisters - at Tongaporutu, south of Mokau, just off State Highway 3.

The rock is about 400m from the view of Tongaporutu resident Mike Brown who looks out at the landmark from his lounge window.

Brown said it had definitely suffered damage to its trunk.

"It's quite a big rock, it's in the shape of an elephant, you've got its back, its hind legs and front legs and you've got its trunk which is right out the front and comes down to the ground and the trunk has fallen off, so it's lost its elephant look.

"A week or two ago it was fine and I would speculate that it may have suffered in that [7.8] earthquake because we felt that quite strongly here.