Wild end to Hawke's Bay weekend - sunshine returns in the week

Fallen branches along Oak Ave, Hastings after a windy start to the day. Photo / Paul Taylor

Wild winds which hit a top gust of 95km/h this morning downed tree branches and forced the cancellation of the latest cruise liner into Napier Port.

High winds this morning mean the liner Sea Princess could not make it in to the port today.

"The ship will continue on to Tauranga instead, and will return to our shores on December 3," a statement from Napier Port said.

Although there were no flight cancellations at Hawke's Bay Airport, MetService's weather station there recorded a maximum wind gust of 95km/h.

MetService meteorologist Gerrit Keiser said wind speeds started to pick up from midday on Saturday, before peaking early this morning.

"About 5am this morning we saw those gusts coming in at 95km/h, which is pretty significant. So, from yesterday we saw gusts getting up to only 30km/h and then overnight they dropped to about 20km/h and then this morning was when we got those really strong gusts coming through Napier Airport."

Keiser said winds would continue to reduce into the afternoon, with the weather expected to pick up for the start of the working week.

'It's looking pretty good for the next few days. There's a ridge building over New Zealand and this is mostly bringing dry and clear weather, especially around the East Coast of the North Island and Napier, where we expect good conditions all the way through to Thursday.

"Temperatures will remain in the lower 20s for the beginning of the week and then from Wednesday onwards we see it spiking into the high 20s. That's just an indication of the winds coming from the northwest.

"That's all good news but there is a big frontal system arriving into New Zealand on Thursday, so I expect the change for Hawke's Bay to be on Friday with some rain coming in and on the weekend."