High winds that roared through Auckland overnight are expected to stay around until late this morning.
Wind speeds reached about 100km/h at Auckland Airport overnight, with the peak time being about 8pm, MetService said.
Gusts stayed around the 60km/h later and through to the early hours this morning. Strong winds can cause even the Auckland Harbour Bridge to rock, the weather authority said.
A similar warning was issued by the NZ Transport Agency yesterday afternoon when strong winds resulted in a warning to motorcyclists to take extra care when crossing the bridge.
MetService meteorologist Philippa Murdoch said the 100km/h wind speed mark was "pretty rare" in Auckland and more the kind of thing spotted in Wellington.
"There could be a few more hours of strong winds and gusts as we've got a strong wind watch there until 9am.
"It should start to ease late this morning and through to this evening - but it will still be reasonably brisk throughout the day still."
Aucklanders can expect a high of 13C and an overnight low of 11C. At 7am, the temperature in Auckland was 10.9C, but felt more like 8C according to MetService.
MetService has issued a strong wind watch for Northland, Auckland, Great Barrier Island, Coromandel Peninsula and Waikato.
West to southwest winds may approach "severe gale'' in exposed areas and people in those places are being warned to stay alert.
Strong wind watches are also in place for Canterbury north of Waimakariri, Banks Peninsula, Dunedin, Clutha, Southland and Stewart Island.
Northern, central and southern fire communications reported no weather-related calls overnight.
However, people in and around Auckland took to social media to share photos and videos of strong gusts blustering around their homes and rain at times.
Further south, parts of the South Island - particularly in and around Queenstown - got a dusting of snow overnight.
The Cardrona Alpine Resort ski resort reported about 6.30am that they had experienced a stormy morning but which was expected to ease soon.
"We've had a dusting of fresh snow overnight and chains will need to be fitted on 2WDs. Lifts may be subject to wind holds first thing, but this storm should pass pretty early today.''
Otago and Ashburton township also got a bit of snowfall late last night.
A man is in custody after police rushed to a shopping centre on Auckland’s North Shore following reports of a robbery. Video / NZ Herald
