14 Oct 2012

About 200 still without power

12:56 pm on 14 October 2012

Vector says about 200 people are still without power in parts of west Auckland and the North Shore after strong winds hit the area.

Gusts of up to 130km per hour on Saturday brought down trees and electricity lines across the upper North Island.

Vector said there were more outages on Sunday morning because the wind was still strong.

The company hopes all the power will be back on by mid afternoon.

MetService says the weather is now easing.

AAP reports a Pacific Blue flight from Melbourne to Auckland was diverted to Tauranga on Saturday.

Air New Zealand cancelled or diverted around 30 regional flights.

Drivers are advised to use caution on State Highway One between Taupo and Turangi because of flooding.

Police in Wellington say there are two minor slips on State Highway Two on the Rimutaka Hill, but the highway is not blocked.

200+ calls to Fire Service

The Fire Service northern communications centre received more than 200 weather-related calls over the past 24 hours.

The calls were for relatively minor events such as trees falling over or power lines coming down, but the number of calls was unusual.

A spokesperson said most of them had stopped by about midnight.