Farm staff on Te Aroha station at Pehiri, inland from Gisborne, have been busy cleaning up after a tornado ripped through part of the property late on Tuesday afternoon.
Staff say they got thunder first, then hail, then the mini tornado arrived.
The farm workers say it sounded like a 747 jet and looked like the blast from its engines.
The tornado destroyed or damaged eight buildings on the farm, but did not damage houses and no one was injured.
