Fierce winds had South Island fire crews dealing with more than 80 cases of ripped roofs, tossed trees, downed powerlines, capsized campervans, and several wildfires.
First, there were gale north-westerlies, MetService said gusts topped 120kmh across both Otago and Canterbury.
Then, the wind turned - with south-westerly gales hitting 140kmh in Dunedin.
The biggest gust - 172kmh - was recorded at Cape Turnagain. Power outages have been reported from the far South to North Canterbury.
Bluebridge has cancelled Tuesday's Cook Strait sailings, and Interislander cancelled Monday afternoon's sailings of the Kaiarahi - and none of the fleet is crossing the Strait Tuesday.
The disruption is affecting school holiday travellers on the land, sea, and sky with dozens of Air New Zealand flights disrupted.
Air New Zealand chief operations officer Alex Marren spoke to Ingrid Hipkiss.
