More than a thousand homes are without power in Canterbury after strong winds and heavy rain battered the region overnight.
Last night MetService issued a red warning, reserved for only the most severe weather events, and gusts of up to 120 kilometres an hour were recorded in the Canterbury High Country overnight.
Strong wind and heavy rain warnings are in place for most of the South Island, as well as Wellington and the Wairarapa.
Brent Dunn, the duty shift manager for Fire and Emergency's southern communications team, says they were called out to a forest fire caused by a lightning strike in Canterbury.
But he told RNZ's reporter Emma Hatton that despite the wild weather, they were not as busy as expected.
