Strong wind are typical of early spring weather.
Photo: 123RF
More than 1600 homes in the Coromandel Peninsula and Western Bay of Plenty were still without power, after high winds ripped through the regions overnight on Saturday.
Most of the damage was caused by collapsed trees that brought down powerlines.
More than 12,500 were without power on Sunday, following the storms.
Lines company PowerCo crews had been carrying out repairs, and by Monday morning 1695 remained without supply.
PowerCo said it had extra crews working on the restoration, but was facing multiple poles and lines down in a number of locations.
It was not the only region having to battle strong winds – several flights to and from Napier and Dunedin were cancelled on Saturday, stranding passengers, while the Auckland Harbour Bridge was forced to shut briefly.
MetService head of weather news, Heather Keats, said it was windier in Auckland than even Wellington.
“Auckland Harbor Bridge had gusts of almost 100km/h,” she told Morning Report. “Manukau Heads, which is quite exposed, but they had a gust of 120km/h. Mahia Peninsula, so heading around to Hawke’s Bay and Gisborne, 140km/h…. Invercargill 110km/h, Tauranga 85km/h.
“So you can see that that wind was widespread and it wasn’t just gusty, the background winds were really strong. It was very much an unsettled spring-like weekend and it did catch people off guard.”
Keats said “everyone kind of gets shocked by these strong winds” even though it is “typical spring weather”.
“It’s just unfortunate that we’re not going to have, especially this week, we’re not going to really get a break at all, because we get a new front that arrives tomorrow,” said.
“The northwester picks up and is really strong, for the South Island as we head into about Wednesday. There’s a risk of watches and warnings for severe gales again and also heavy rain for Tuesday, Wednesday for pretty much the entire South Island and central New Zealand.
“On Thursday it’s Hawke’s Bay’s turn and Wellington’s turn and Wairarapa’s turn, with very strong severe northwesters and westerlies.
Heather Keats.
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“And then Friday, it’s looking good for the North Island, but Friday for the lower South [Island] again, we’re going to have some severe northwest gales as well.”
The nor’wester however will bring warm temperatures to Canterbury, including Ashburton and Timaru, she said.
“And it makes people a little crazy because it is a headache – the winds are strong, but also it’s quite warm.
“Christchurch can expect to have about 22 degrees on Wednesday. That’s well above the average normally for this time of the year.”
The restless weather was caused by a “very prominent westerly flow pressure gradient”.
“Spring has started, just kind of like how winter started, which it sort of turned up on the calendar and it went, ‘OK, here we are, we’re here, we’re spring.’
“It does start to ease off towards the end of spring and we get some more settled high pressure weather that kind of kicks through, but every time we get into spring, everyone kind of gets shocked by these strong winds, but it is typical spring weather for New Zealand.”
There were no warnings on the MetService website as of 6.30am on Monday.
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