Trees down in Tuatapere Photo: Andrew Johnston
Thousands are without power and communications as wild weather hits the lower South Island this Labour Day Weekend.
RNZ spoke to some of those affected - here are their stories.
Resident relieved to have power
Life for some Southland residents on Saturday was returning to normal, thanks to their power being restored.
While outages remained in the region, some properties about 50km northwest of Invercargill were back on the grid.
Wairio resident Mia Hurst said her family found the outage boring, although they kept busy playing board games.
"The kids hated it," she said. "School was cancelled, we got a day-and-a-half extra off school, so we got a really long weekend.
"It wasn't too bad. We managed to get generators installed to power up the freezer for a bit."
Hurst said Thursday's storm was scary, as she and her family worried their roof would lift or that nearby trees would come down. A few branches did fall on her property, but there was no damage, she said.
Nightcaps Food Square owner Dharmesh Mody. Photo: RNZ / Andrew Johnstone
Power back on, but water out for some in Southland
A Southland dairy was struggling to operate on Saturday without water.
Nightcaps Food Square owner Dharmesh Mody said power was restored to the area on Friday night, after being out for about 35 hours following high winds on Thursday.
He arrived at work on Saturday in the town, about 50km northwest of Invercargill, to find the water not working, while the internet also remained down.
"The internet is not working, so EFTPOS is not working. We need to sort out the EFTPOS, because nowadays people don't carry cash. That's the biggest issue."
Mody was also unable to scan items. He said he was keeping a tab for locals, so they could still buy goods and pay him later.
He did not think he had lost any stock from the freezers.
Trees down in Clutha. Photo: Supplied / Clutha District Council
Motel fills buckets for guests' toilet use
A Southland motel and eatery had to fill buckets from a water tanker, so its guests could use the toilet during an outage after Thursday's storm.
James Garthwaite - managing director of Tui Base Camp in Tuatapere - said, despite the water, power and cell coverage falling out, there were still guests to look after.
Some people had even dropped by for accommodation at the last minute on Thursday, as the storm hit and they needed to take shelter.
The cafe and bar were closed on Friday, and Garthwaite was working with his insurer to cover losses.
"I couldn't legally open, because we didn't have water for toilets for anything like that," he said. "We still had guests at the motel and lodges, but obviously, we had no booking system, couldn't see anything online.
"The council had water trucks down the road, so we had buckets to refill toilets and things like that just to get by."
Garthwaite said he managed to save frozen and chilled goods by putting them in a refrigerated container, and the business donated sausages for a town BBQ at the Four Square.
He had bookings for the long weekend, with many people looking to walk the Hump Ridge Track, and hoped for a busy three days after last week's disruption, although some people had cancelled.
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