Thousands of North Island homes are likely to be without power tonight, following gale-force winds that damaged lines and brought down trees.
A downed tree blocks Memorial Drive in Hamilton Photo: RNZ / Carol Stiles
Wind gusts nearing 130km/h have been recorded in the central North Island this afternoon.
The National Emergency Management Agency is asking people not to travel unless absolutely necessary.
At least 25,000 homes in the North Island are likely to be without electricity overnight, with large power outages in Taranaki, Hawke's Bay, Taupo, Rotorua, and Northland.
About 11,000 thousand homes are without power in Taranaki. Lines company Unison has about 2000 people without power, mostly in exposed rural parts of Hawke's Bay, Taupo and Rotorua.
Powerco said nearly 34,000 of its customers lost power, 20,000 of whom are still in the dark.
That includes 9000 homes in Bay of Plenty, 6000 in Taranaki and 3000 in south Waikato.
It said the ongoing wild weather is affecting how quickly power can be restored.
Network operations manager Scott Horniblow said crews are working as quickly as they can but it is often too gusty for them to climb to the top of power poles, and customers may be out of power for some time.
An estimated 6000 people have no electricity in Te Tai Tokerau tonight.
The majority are supplied by Top Energy in the Far North.
Northpower expects 1000 people in the Kaipara and Whangārei districts will spend the night without power, with 60 staff still fixing 16 outages.
Network general manager Josie Boyd said the damage to power lines was extensive and, in many cases, trees will need to be removed before repairs start. Boyd said customers without power are in 'very isolated' properties.
Top Energy, which distributes power in the Far North, still has just under 6000 homes without power and said some of those won't have power tonight either.
Vector said around 50,000 homes and businesses were without power at the peak of today's wild weather in the Auckland region.
It said that number dropped to around 14,000 later this afternoon.
Vector said it could take a few days to restore power in some cases, because of the number of outages and homes in hard-to-reach rural areas.
MetService is predicting seven metre swells off New Plymouth tonight, but Taranaki Civil Defence says the worst of the bad weather appears to be over. It is continuing to ask people to limit their travel.
MetService's warning for Auckland has now expired, and the Harbour bridge is now open again, but motorists should expect congestion.
And in the South Island, State Highway 1 between Kaikoura and Waipara has reopened.
Meanwhile, Air New Zealand says the weather has forced it to cancel at least 100 flights, and there will likely be more.
Many roads throughout the North Island remain closed, public transport is disrupted and all Interislander ferries are cancelled for the day.
Waka Kotahi is urging motorists to slow down because many roads have been damaged by the weekend's heavy rain.
The transport agency says there is a risk of surface flooding, slips, tree branches or even power lines down on some roads.
Road lighting may be out on some parts of the state highway network for several hours.
See how the day's weather chaos unfolded with RNZ's live blog
