Strong winds caused a tree in Kelburn to smash through the roof of a parked car. Photo: RNZ / Soumya Bhamidipati
It has been a rainy and windy day for parts of the lower North Island but emergency services say there have been few problems.
Several trees in the region have been uplifted by winds gusting over 100km/hour.
In the Wellington suburb of Kelburn, a tree smashed through the roof of a parked car on Upland Road.
Police are directing traffic, while a worker chainsaws limbs off the tree.
A Wellington man who parked his car on the street he's lived on for a decade went outside this afternoon to find it crushed under a tree.
A strong wind warning that was in place over the capital this morning has now been lifted.
Kelburn resident Daniel O'Brien had been inside his Upland Road home for less than a quarter of an hour when a large tree branch went through the roof of his car, just before 3pm.
"I'd just parked the car, came in, I was just about to go out again to go into town, and I couldn't believe my eyes. I saw this crushed car - my car - with a tree on it, so it must've happened within sort of a 15-minute window."
Kelburn resident Daniel O'Brien's car was hit by a tree. Photo: RNZ / Soumya Bhamidipati
It was extremely lucky no one had been inside the vehicle, O'Brien said.
"I can just imagine driving and parking it and the thing falling on me, or having the children in the back, perish the thought that that happened while we were in the car."
The tree looked no different than usual today, but O'Brien said he had wondered about it before.
"We do think about that tree and that branch and we think it's overhanging quite a lot, today it didn't click.
"There wasn't actually that much wind when I parked it, which was surprising as well. This morning it was a lot windier ... I didn't think there was a particular gust of wind of anything in the afternoon."
O'Brien said he did not hear anything when the car was crushed. Debris from the tree scattered across two-thirds of Upland Road, slowing cars, for about an hour before contractors arrived to saw off limbs.
The police arrived just before 4pm to direct traffic.
MetService said all weather warnings and watches had now been cancelled.
The system was moving north and will bring rain to Auckland by tonight, it said.
MetService said the weather front that brought heavy rain and gales across central New Zealand today was weakening.
Sunday afternoon's satellite-eye view
— MetService (@MetService) December 10, 2023
It's a good day to make use of the rain radar in the North Island as the rain-bringing front continues moving north
☀ Really clear now over Westland and Central Otago, but a bit cooler
The word "virga" on the map refers to rain… pic.twitter.com/4FdOe1YLFV
Stats time
— MetService (@MetService) December 10, 2023
These are some of the highest rainfall accumulations and strongest wind gusts recorded across Aotearoa weather stations these past 24 hours
Most of the severe weather with this system is over, aside from heavy rain in the Tararua Range where an Orange… pic.twitter.com/4xeJI4Ub0A
Flights from Wellington to New Plymouth were canceled due to low cloud in New Plymouth, and to Napier are facing delays.
