A clean-up is underway in the Far North after a tornado tore a trail of destruction across the Karikari Peninsula.
The twister, around 9.30pm on Sunday, flattened as many as 500 trees on a single property, demolished sheds, brought pines down across State Highway 10, and sent a fridge, trampoline and dinghy flying through the air.
A stunned Andrew Potbury was today (Monday) still surveying the destruction on his Inland Rd property.
His "retirement fund" - a 17-year-old plantation of around 600 gum, blackwood and other trees - is now little more than kindling, with all but two rows of trees flattened or snapped off 5m above the ground.
Mr Potbury, however, said he and his family had been very lucky.
Trees had come crashing down 30m from his home and a barbecue and fridge had been sucked off his verandah, but his home was undamaged.
The weather had been rough all evening but worsened dramatically around 9.30pm.
"It didn't give us any warning. It just arrived and was all over in a minute," he said.
"It was a colossal amount of wind, it was horrific. It was a real growl. The guy next door said it sounded like a jet engine."
Mr Potbury and his wife Te Aroha checked their children by torchlight, finding all five had slept through the drama, and checked the dogs and pet lamb.
Power was restored by 2.30am but it was only when daylight came that he realised the scale of the destruction.
Trees up to 20m high had been uprooted or snapped like matchsticks; a pigsty had been demolished and pieces of a neighbour's new chook pen scattered through what used to be his plantation. There was no sign of the chooks but, sadly, the ground was littered with dozens of dead birds, many of them quails. Mr Potbury was hoping to catch and get help for a white-faced heron cowering with a broken wing.
For more see tomorrow's Northern Advocate.
Were you hit by the rough weekend weather? Do you have any photos email them to reporters@northernadvocate.co.nz