Auckland blackout: Thousands without power suffer cold night

Thousands of Aucklanders have endured a second bitterly cold night without heating or light as temperatures plunged to 8°C.

Around 45,000 homes in Auckland still remain without power after Tuesday night's wild weather.

The outages are widespread across the city, and Vector has warned that it could be a few days before power is restored.

A resident in Ponsonby, Steven, said his power had been coming in and out.

"I found the back end of the house has power but then the front end does. It's very tempremental so it'll be on one minute and then off the next," he said.

With the power being out in his kitchen, Steven said he and his flatmate had to come up with another way to make their toast.

"We used a cake prode to hold our bread and lit the gas and turned it old school style."

Another resident across the road from Steven, Richard, said that he was baffled that half the street had power and the other half didn't.

"If you walk up the street you can see the point where the power cuts off, so it's about 10 or 11 houses up ... it'd be nice to have some information from the power company. We haven't heard much."

He said the cold was the hardest thing to deal with.

"That's the worst part ... no hot showers, I had to boil the water this morning and go back to basics."

Vector says it's hoping to get a lot more homes back on electricity today, with 45,000 homes still without power. Last night 79,000 were without power.

Vector chief executive Simon Mackenzie told Morning Report the outages are still widespread but they've brought crews in from as far away as Wellington to get things up and running.

"The reality is we expect to get a lot more customers back up and running today. There will be some areas that will take longer, potentially a few more days," he said.

Mr Mackenzie couldn't say when all power will be back on however some may have to wait a few days.

Meanwhile, MetService says the chilly weather that's gripping the country is likely to stay around until the end of the week, when rain is on the way.

The temperature in Auckland plunged to an overnight low of 8°C.

Today a north west front, closely followed by a brisk southerly change is expected to move up the South Island which means there won't be dry weather until Saturday.

But it's only expected to bring a brief respite during Sunday, with another southerly front expected that evening.

Meteorologist Ravi Kandula said that would probably bring slightly warmer temperatures, but also rain.

"It's not a very pretty picture for the next 6-7 days unfortunately. There's a number of features passing through, cold air feature for the next few days and then a warm air feature after that," he said.

Despite the cold weather, transport services seem to slowly be getting back to normal.

Wellington Airport says runway and taxi lighting has now been restored and are operational.

However, they warn some flights will continue to be delayed or cancelled and are urging people to check their flights online.

Today's weather

Whangarei

Cloudy periods. Rain from evening, possibly heavy. Southerly turning gusty westerly. High 19°C; Low 14°C

Auckland

Fine spells and a chance of morning showers. Rain from the evening, possibly heavy. Westerlies, becoming strong and gusty this evening. High 18°C; Low 14°C

Hamilton

Fine at first. Cloud increasing in the afternoon, then evening rain with possible heavy falls. Westerlies developing morning. High 17°C; Low 11°C

Tauranga

Fine at first. Cloud increasing in the afternoon, then showers from evening. Southerlies turn westerly. High 18°C; Low 12°C

Wellington

Partly cloudy. Showers developing afternoon. Northerly, changing southerly tonight. High 14°C; Low 9°C

Christchurch

Early frosts then cloud increasing. Occasional rain from the afternoon. Northerly changing strong southwest evening. High 12°C; Low 4°C

Dunedin

Occasional rain developing in the morning, and northerlies changing brisk southwesterly afternoon. High 9°C; Low 6°C

Queenstown

Early frosts. Occasional rain, clearing in the evening. Northerly turning southerly afternoon. High 10°C; Low 1°C

- MetService