Cars forced to retreat as high tides, big waves lash Napier's Ocean Spa car park

A few night-time gym goers in Napier found themselves having to do a bit of aquatic work before hitting the iron as a high tide and big swells punished the Ocean Spa carpark on Thursday.

Quade Smith was making his way to Ocean Spa Gym with a couple of mates about 6.15pm on Thursday and knew something was off as he turned into the carpark.

"We could see a bit of driftwood and stuff in the carpark and were thinking what's going on, and then once we got out we heard a big swell coming in," he said.

"There was literally a good couple of hundred millilitres of water rushing over the ground."

Smith said it was amazing to see the water push so far up, but it was an unnerving experience for some.

A massive swell and high tide combined in Napier. Photo / Supplied

"We quickly decided to move our cars out of the way but it was funny having to watch some of our mates, who parked closer to the ocean, having to get through the water soaking their shoes to get to them."

He said the water was rushing up for a good couple of hours and he could see the big swells every so often pushing right up to the carpark.

"When we came out at around 8 there was just sticks and stuff everywhere; it seemed to make a bit of a mess."

MetService Meteorologist Andy Best said a heavy swell warning was put place for parts of the East Coast and Hawke's Bay for last night.

"The warning wasn't necessarily for the big swells, which were between 3.5 to 4 metres but the length of each swell, which were longer than normal, averaging between 11 to 14 seconds, caused by a big southwest swell," Best said.

"Mix that with the high tide occurring at the same time would have made it much worse."

The seas eased off by Friday morning and were back down to 1 to 2-metre swells.