Slips, high winds, heavy rain and power cuts

Winds of 165 kph

Wellington: Weather chaos hits

Extreme' weather across much of the country has caused flight and ferry cancellations, black ice, slips and power outages.

Stuff,

14 July, 2013

Some Hutt Valley homes and businesses are still without power and flights have been cancelled because of rough weather in Wellington.

Most ferry services from Wellington and Picton have been cancelled.

MetService duty forecaster Tristan Oakley said 165kmh gusts in Wellington made the capital the worst hit in terms of wind.

Wellington was also hammered with 30mm of rain in some places, making it the wettest place in the country today along with Gisborne, which got nearly 100mm in its upper ranges.

Oakley said a ridge of high pressure moving in from the Tasman Sea meant the worst had passed.

“It will ease winds for most of the country and the general trend is for everything to start clearing up and improving,” he said.

Air New Zealand spokeswoman Emma Field said regional services into and out of Wellington have been cancelled for the rest of the day due to high winds.

Jet services were still operating, with the exception of NZ459 between Auckland and Wellington and NZ454 between Christchurch and Wellington. Passengers on these planes will be flown into Palmerston North, and transported by road to Wellington.

High seas and gale force winds forced Interislander ferry Arahura, carrying freight, to take an alternative northern route via Queen Charlotte Sound to reach Picton, instead of going through Tory Channel.

It finally berthed in Picton an hour and a half late, after battling stormy seas in Cook Strait and gale force conditions.

A brisk and cool breeze whipped up as the boat's cargo door was opened sending Interislander staff scuttling for shelter.

A line of trucks streamed straight off the top deck and onto the road.

Arahura will remain in Picton and not return to Wellington tonight as planned. It will stay in Picton until the weather improved, she said.

All Interislander passengers booked from Picton to Wellington tonight will be transferred to sailings tomorrow at the earliest.

MetService duty forecaster Liz Walsh said a southerly front was sitting in the Cook Strait, and could cause some damage, with wind gusts expected to hit 130kmh.

The front is not as deep or as strong as last month’s storm but the winds could lift roofs or unsecured property, she said.

‘‘It probably won’t have the same extent and longevity as the storm but could be damaging,’’ she said. ‘‘It is a significant weather event.’’

POWER OUT

About 90 homes and businesses are still without electricity in Lower Hutt after 1700 properties lost power just after 2pm.

Wellington Electricity spokesman Drew Douglas said a feeder station at Waterloo ‘‘tripped’’, probably because of trees falling on the line.

Power should be restored gradually to the cut-off homes as workers fix the problem, he said.

Two other power failures were reported.

One, in Bayview Rd, Paremata, happened about 11.15am Sunday and affected ‘‘a handful of customers’’, spokesman Drew Douglas said.

The second, larger outage happened at 11.50am, where 72 customers on Horokiwi Rd, Grenada North, were without power.

That outage was caused by a tree falling onto the lines.

FLIGHTS DISRUPTED

Air New Zealand spokeswoman Emma Field said at about 6pm that regional services into and out of Wellington had been cancelled for the rest of the day.

Jet services were still operating, with the exception of NZ459 between Auckland and Wellington and NZ454 between Christchurch and Wellington.

Passengers on these planes will be flown into Palmerston North, and transported by road to Wellington.

Passengers are advised to check with their airlines.

FERRIES CANCELLED

Three sailings of the Interislander ferry Kaitaki, at 8.15am from Wellington, the 1.05pm from Picton and the Arahura from Wellington at 2.30pm, were all cancelled. There could be further cancellations depending on conditions.

Interislander ferry the Arahura is battling stormy seas and failed to berth at 5.40pm in Picton.

The freight-only sailing left Wellington at 2.30pm, an InterIslander spokeswoman confirmed.

At 7pm a decision would be made on whether a freight sailing to Wellington would go ahead.

Major highways are open but a dusting of snow could hit the Rimutaka Hill Rd tonight, Walsh said. ‘‘We are expecting snow showers to develop from 9pm on Sunday to Monday morning.’’

Offshore winds had reached 60 knots, or 120-130kmh this morning, she said.

SLIP FORCES ROAD CLOSURE

A landslip has also blocked the Makara Rd, west of Wellington, with cars heading for Makara Village advised to go via Johnsonville and the Ohariu Valley.

BLACK ICE

In the South Island, police this morning urged motorists in parts of Southland and Central Otago to be wary, with weather conditions there described as "extreme".

Police say there is ice and black ice on the main highways and there have been reports of 10 minor ice related crashes where cars have hit ice and slid off the road. There have been no major injuries.

The severe weather has also forced Mt Hutt skifield to close for the day.

Staff posted a video to Youtube, saying "it's absolutely snowing a storm up here - blizzard conditions."

"We've had at least 15 cm of dry snow. It's going to snow harder tonight ..."