A large waterspout resembling a tornado was spotted off the coast of West Auckland this morning.
Tolan Henderson, manager of golf operations at Muriwai Golf Links, told the Herald he filmed the waterspout on his way to work.
“I got a message from one of my greenkeepers saying, ‘Keep an eye out for the waterspouts over the back of Oaia Island’.
“I was up on the top of the hill coming down into Muriwai and looked over and saw it to the northern end of the golf course.
“I saw a couple of waterspouts or tornado-like clouds on the horizon and then as I came around the corner, down on to the golf course, we saw the big one over the bottom of Oaia Island and you could actually see where it was sucking water up off the rock and up and up into the air.”
Henderson said at first he thought the waterspout was “pretty cool”, but he started to become nervous as it moved towards the beach.
“We have emergency plans in place for the golf course.
“Fortunately it was about 7.10 in the morning and golfers hadn’t gone out at that time, but if it happens when golf is on, we’ve got emergency procedures in place that if anything such as lightning and that sort of stuff happens, we can get golfers to safe spots on the golf course and hopefully keep them out of harm’s way.”
Henderson told the Herald the most extreme weather he had seen at the golf course was Cyclone Gabrielle in 2023, but the waterspout was the most impressive.
“The cyclone was hours and hours of rain and that was at three in the morning, whereas this is seven in the morning and something dropping from the heavens down to suck water out of the sea was pretty impressive.”
Local Robert Waddell said he spotted the spout about 1km off the coast of Muriwai Beach and estimated it stretched 400m in the air and had a base of about 100m in diameter.
“It was this huge white column,” he said.
“It was heading off towards the Helensville area, but only over the sea obviously.
“And it just kept on going till it hit the beach.”
He said he was not nervous about standing out and photographing it because it was headed in the opposite direction.
“I’ve never seen one before. It was quite spectacular.”
MetService meteorologist Michael Pawley said the spout was a feature in the unstable conditions crossing the North Island, which also threatens to bring heavy downpours and marble-sized hail.
Waterspouts typically occur in unstable conditions and humidity when an updraft mixes with showers, so the rising warmer air cools and condenses into vapour.
Heads up eastern North Island⛈️
— MetService NZ (@MetService) November 13, 2025
A Severe Thunderstorm Watch is in place this afternoon and evening🟡 Some thunderstorms may be severe, bringing:
💧Heavy downpours in localised areas
🧊Large hail
🚗Hazardous driving conditions pic.twitter.com/KPNMb4YyHK