Thousands of homes, businesses and shops have been without power. Picture / Dean Purcell.

Thousands of homes, businesses and shops have been without power. Picture / Dean Purcell.

Power was gradually being restored to Auckland this afternoon after a blackout brought the city to a standstill.

Though power was reported to be finally restored after about four hours at 12.40pm, Auckland City Council said an hour later that 80 per cent of the city was still without electricity.

At 2.45pm, power company Vector said power had been restored to most parts of Auckland except for Penrose, the Eastern Suburbs, Glen Innes, and Otahuhu.

The council changed earlier advice telling people to stay put. It said this afternoon that parents should arrange to collect children from school and employers should send staff home if they were able to in order to avoid rush hour congestion.

It said Vector was predicting all power would be restored by 4.30pm

Auckland mayor Dick Hubbard said questions had to be asked about why the CBD and 700,000 people should lose electricity through one section of power line going out.

"It would be appropriate to ask questions why and whether there is an unreasonable level of vulnerability," he said.

The storm sweeping up the country also brought heavy snow to the South Island. Mid and south Canterbury woke up to the first heavy snowfall of the season.

Schools were closed in Christchurch and Timaru and Christchurch International Airport was closed from about 8.30am.

Auckland City Police mobilised its district emergency management plan and the city council activated its emergency operations centre.

Middlemore and Auckland City hospitals cancelled all surgery and emergency departments were handling urgent cases only. North Shore and Waitakere Hospitals were not affected.

The fire service and lift companies released some people trapped in elevators.

Traffic lights

More than 300 sets of traffic lights were out in central Auckland and a Vector spokeswoman said Manukau was also affected, while police said the power cut stretched to Hamilton. Thousands of homes, businesses and shops were without power.

The blackout stopped trains on the Auckland network. Back-up systems came into operation and allowed limited services to operate, but one passenger, Jon Reeves, told nzherald.co.nz it took him 2 hours to get to work on a journey which usually takes 20 minutes.