A local photographer captured brutal winds at Mahia in northern Hawke's Bay blowing a waterfall back upwards. Video / Kirsty Thomas
"It was like driving through needles."
A farm worker who drove through a waterfall in Hawke's Bay being blown back up on to the land by gusts from a winter blast that reached up to 150km/h has captured the unusual sight.
Kirsty Thomas was doing a lambing beat on aneighbouring farm in furious conditions on Mahia's East Coast Rd at 9am on Monday when she spotted the wall of waterfall water being blown backwards.
"At first I thought it was smoke. I had to drive through it, and my 5-year-old daughter was by my side, and she thought it was smoke as well," Thomas said.
"The track I had to go across runs to the waterfall, and that's when I realised it was the waterfall."
Both Thomas and her daughter were sitting in a side-by-side small farm buggie.
"It was like driving through needles, my little girl broke the water. She was sitting on the side of the waterfall, and we got drenched. She was holding on to her cheeks and I asked her what was wrong and she said 'the water was so sharp'.
She said she had never seen the phenomenon before, and so decided to video it.
"The wind was blowing me away as I was trying to capture the video. I tried to focus on the waterfall and panned out to the sea," she said.
"Normally the waterfall just trickles down, there is bugger all going through it, until it rains. I went back there on Tuesday and everything was normal."
The waterfall as the wind picked up in Mahia. Photo / Kirsty Thomas
MetService meteorologist Tui McInnes said its two different weather stations in Mahia recorded gusts of more than 100km/h on Monday.
"We have a station that's at an elevation of 400 metres, so it's obviously exposed. That station recorded gusts of 150km/h at 5am on Monday," he said.
"It was certainly up there with the strongest gusts we have recorded [at that station], if not the strongest."
MetService's second Mahia station, at an elevation of 130 metres, recorded 115km/h gusts.
McInnes said on the same day gusts of up to 83km/h were recorded at Napier Airport, and the station at Cape Kidnappers which sits at an elevation of 113 metres recorded 130km/h.
The waterfall on a normal day. Photo / Kirsty Thomas
But, the rest of the week, until Monday is expected to be relatively "less breezy", he said.
"The temperatures are not looking too bad until Monday. They are expected to be slightly warmer than average, for example the average for Napier for August is 14.9C, but it's going to be warmer this week," he said.
A few showers and cloudy periods are expected early on Friday and Saturday, with temperatures hovering around the mid to late-teen mark, he said.
Day time temperatures will range from 17C to 18C in Hastings, including Monday, and overnight lows are expected to range from 3C to 7C.
Similar day-time temperatures are expected in Napier with highs hovering along the 16C to 18C mark, and overnight lows ranging from 6C to 9C.
"Shower are expected to be passing through on Friday, and a southerly change is expected on Saturday, which means it might be cloudy, but it will be very fleeting."
