Strong winds cause havoc for Hawke's Bay, wind causes power outages, fallen trees and more

Strong winds caused power lines and trees to fall down, as well as outages in rural areas. Photo/Supplied

The first day of the school holidays got off to a rather wet and windy start, with power outages, and fallen trees affecting mainly rural parts of the region.

A tree blown over by high winds on Sunday caused a fire and "significant damage" to powerlines, leaving some people without power overnight.

Unison relationships manager Danny Gough said a power outage in Aropaoanui Rd was the result of a large tree being blown over by the wind.

"It has fallen across Unison's power lines causing significant damage to the network. It appears this is also where the fire has started.

"There were 28 customers affected by the outage, and our crews are still on site carrying out repairs to the network."

By yesterday morning, about 230 customers in Te Pohue, Rissington, and Puketitiri, as well as other areas, were without power.

Gough said they had crews working from early yesterday morning to restore the power, but due to the extent of the damage it had proven difficult.

Around 5pm last night, about 180 customers were still affected.

"The plan is that quite a few of those will come on within the next couple of hours," Gough said last night. Generators were also being used for some affected houses in the Aropaoanui Rd area.

"We may also have about five homes in Aropaonui Rd, who we may not be able to restore power tonight, and where we can't generate. We have attempted to contact the affected customers where possible," he said last night.

"We appreciate everyone's patience as we work through the restoration process," Gough said.

A strong wind watch was in place for the region until 11pm last night, with northwest winds approaching severe gale at times. At 9am yesterday morning, 94km/h was recorded on the Takapau Plains.

The strong gusts also toppled multiple trees, tore down power lines and blew road cones across the road late last night and early this morning, a police spokesperson said.

MetService Meteorologist Kyle Lee said Hawke's Bay had gotten off lightly compared with other areas.

"With the flow of the wind and the systems that have hit us, it is more the western areas of the North Island that have been affected by a lot of the heavier rainfall and thunderstorms," Lee said.

"Today, we will see a change as the winds start to shift southwest in behind the active frontal features. As many parts of the country are sheltered in this southwest flow much of the country will start seeing an improvement in their weather by the end of today."

However, it will be short-lived. On Thursday, the front weakens but will affect much of the North Island with isolated showers until evening when a ridge of high pressure starts to build over New Zealand.

"This will be welcomed improvement compared to the weekend just gone," Lee said.