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A curtain of rain falls across Wellington Harbour - looking to Lambton Harbour from Oriental Bay - Source: Courtesy of Soile Mottisenkangas -
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Wild weather has brought gale-force winds and plunging temperatures to Wellington and Kaikoura as atrocious weather shunted up the east coast.
Gusty winds of over 120 kilometres an hour have taken down trees and damaged buildings, and there are reports of hail and power outages, with the temperature dropping from 19.9degC to 9degC when the "aggressive" southerly front reached Wellington.
The southerly caused the temperature to drop 11 degrees in just over half an hour.
Train services to the Hutt Valley were cancelled and flights in and out of the capital were also delayed, with at least one flight cancelled.
Do you have images or video from the wild weather? Send them to ONE News at news@tvnz.co.nz
No cancellations are expected for the Cook Strait ferry, although a tug is being used to manoeuvre the vessels in Wellington harbour as a precaution, an Interislander spokesman says.
There have also been reports of trapped motorists needing to be cut out of vehicles; however there have been no reports of serious injuries.
A woman was trapped in Carterton when a tree fell down across her car, causing minor injuries, Inspector Ian Harris said.
Several other people also received minor injuries, including a teenage boy hit by a falling tree branch at Rarangi near Blenheim, in Marlborough.
In Wellington, power lines had been blown down from Island Bay to Upper Hutt and across to Paekakariki on the Kapiti Coast, a Wellington Electricity spokesman said.
Power companies had been flooded with calls, and engineers were working frantically to restore power and remove fallen lines.
The police launch was called out to rescue a kayaker about 4.30pm near Oriental Bay, but after several hours' searching it appeared to have been a yellow racing buoy, Harris said.
There had been no reports of an overdue kayaker.
Conditions on the harbour were described as "atrocious" by the Wellington Coastguard, which was helping police.
The weather also caught out yachts taking part in an annual fundraising race by the Royal Port Nicholson Yacht Club.
Eighty-two business people - including celebrity chef Martin Bosley - were racing around Somes Island and back on members' boats.
Thirteen keel boats took part, with three needing to be towed to shore and three having to wait out the storm, yacht club chief executive Dean Stanley said.
The course had been shortened because of the weather.
One person fell overboard but was quickly rescued.
"We get plenty of wind every now and again in Wellington, and that
comes through in fronts, and that was certainly a very intense
front," Stanley said.
Police said one yachtie was taken to hospital.
There were also reports of boats in trouble on Porirua Harbour, but they had rescued themselves before police arrived.
Roofs were also blown off buildings at St Bernard's College in Lower Hutt and Samuel Marsden College in Wellington, which was hit by a mini tornado.
Earlier, a group of nine American tourists had been reportedly trapped out on a walkway in Kaikoura, 181km northeast of Christchurch.
A 15-year-old boy hit by a tree near Blenheim was flown to Wairau Hospital with lower leg and suspected spinal injuries, a Summit Rescue Helicopter pilot said.
Trees fell across rail lines in Wellington, blocking the Hutt Valley line north of Waterloo station and damaging the overhead power and signalling, a KiwiRail spokesman said.
Crews were working on the damage, although it was unknown when the repairs would be completed.
Trees were down across roads, but the only road completely blocked was Paekakariki Hill Road.
