Bay residents escape the worst of monster storm

This satellite image from Metservice shows the huge amount of rain falling at 5pm yesterday. Photo/Metservice

Bay of Plenty residents appear to have escaped much of the havoc wreaked by a monster storm which pummelled much of the North Island overnight.

Extreme winds and heavy rain have kept Bay of Plenty firefighters busy. However, Bay residents appeared to avoid the worst of the damage, Fire and Emergency NZ communications shift manager Megan Ruru said.

The storm, packed with destructive 120km/h gales and tropical-fuelled rain, sparked more than 100 calls for help across the North Island.

In the Bay of Plenty, firefighters attended 24 weather-related call outs from 6pm to 6am today.

Of the call outs, there was nothing of major destruction, Ruru said.

"It was mainly trees down across roads, power lines down, nothing too serious."

From 6am to 8am there were no weather-related call outs.

Hundreds of Tauranga residents woke to no power this morning due to the high winds overnight.