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A violent thunder and hailstorm has brought chaos to the Western Bay of Plenty, with hailstones half the size of golf balls leaving parts of the region whitened.
Wattie Newtown says he watched five waterspouts offshore from his home at Town Point.
"One about two or three kilometres off the Mount that would have been 500 metres across, it was huge. There was about three touch downs of those, one lasted for probably five to 10 minutes," Mr Newtown said.
Mr Newton says the winds that accompanied the spouts were horrendous. He says the hailstorm that followed left the beach looking as though it is coated in snow.
The hail was 10 centimetres deep in places.
Another resident told the Herald the hail storm hit the beachside suburb of Papamoa around 11:40am, bringing marble size hail stones with "some twice as large".
Senior Sergeant Ian Campion says fallen hail is lying about four inches thick in some places. He says driving is also hazardous on State Highway 2, east of Te Maunga, due to surface flooding and hail.
A mini-tornado has damaged half a dozen homes in Warkworth, north of Auckland. Former All White Sam Malcolmson was at home when the wind struck around 1.20pm.
"The trees and the bushes started to bend over, and then there was an almighty roar and I heard 'bang, bang, bang, bang'."
Mr Malcolmson says the mini-tornado blew tiles off his roof creating two holes, one which was a metre and a half wide. It also tossed deck chairs about and damaged the rooves on neighbouring houses.
Weatherwatch.co.nz analyst Phillip Duncan says heavy thunderstorms are still possible over the next 24 hours, but after that the weather should ease as the system moves to the east.
Mr Duncan says a band of active thunderstorms is moving towards the Whakatane and eastern Bay of Plenty region. He says another band of thunderstorms is moving from King Country to the Central Plateau.
Auckland is being lashed by rain and cold temperatures, part of a deepening low which Mr Duncan says is centred 150kms south west of Auckland and 150kms north of Taranaki.
Conditions from the week long weather system are likely to ease on Wednesday but another area of low pressure, also described as "massive" by WeatherWatch.co.nz forecasters is hot on its heels.
In the South Island sleet and wintry showers will continue in Dunedin and Invercargill today and tomorrow with southerlies helping keep temperatures down.
Three tour buses were left stranded on slippery, snowy roads on the Lindis Pass for several hours yesterday before they were able to continue their journey.
State Highway 87 from Outram to Middlemarch remains closed this morning because of ice.
But Canterbury's Mt Hutt looks set for a bumper ski season this winter.
Assistant ski area manager James McKenzie says the wintry weather over the past week has seen snow at levels that are not usually seen at this time of the year.
The latest front has delivered around 40 to 50 centimetres of snow which comes on top of the existing 90 centimetres.
Mt Hutt is on track to open on June 13.
- NEWSTALK ZB, NZ HERALD STAFF
