'Destructive' storm to hit New Zealand

Weather disrupts travellers but worse to come

MAARTEN HOLL/Dominion Post

WILD WEATHER: Massive waves, like this one between Pukerua Bay and Paekakariki, hurled debris over roads and almost dragged a man to his death while slips and flooding derailed a train.

MAARTEN HOLL/The Dominion Post

A Paekakariki resident walk across The Parade, which was closed after high seas.

MAARTEN HOLL/The Dominion Post

SLOW TRIP: Peak afternoon traffic faced long delays.

TIM HENEGHAN-WHITE

DEBRIS: Strong seas washed driftwood onto Stage Highway 1.

MAARTEN HOLL/Dominion Post

IN THE WASH: High seas at Plimmerton.

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Strong winds in the lower North Island and snow in the South Island disrupted travellers today, but the MetService is more concerned about a rapidly strengthening storm due this weekend.

Westerly winds, forecast to gust up to 120kph, had cancelled flights from Wellington Airport throughout the day, and several sailings on the Interislander Cook Strait ferry had been cancelled or delayed amid 5m swells.

Tomorrow's 9am sailing from Wellington was expected to be delayed, and a 10am sailing from Picton would be cancelled, Interislander spokesman Nigel Parry said.

As a southerly moved up the country, Transit New Zealand said caution was needed due to snow and ice on State Highway 8, between Palmerston and Kyeburn, and chains were essential on SH73 between Springfield and Arthurs Pass.

Snow was expected to fall down to low levels in the central North Island's Desert Rd area.

Earlier today a tree fell on a road in Paraparaumu, bringing down a power pole, police said, and about midday large rocks fell on SH1 north of Wellington, closing three northbound lanes in Ngauranga Gorge near Johnsonville.

But huge waves which pounded the lower North Island's west coast yesterday, causing landslips and disrupting traffic, were easing.

Kapiti Coast District Council spokesman Tony Cronin said the district had prepared for very heavy rain but had been relatively unscathed. There had been some erosion of coastal dunes, but not as much as expected.

While the storm had been called the worse since September 1976, when houses and cliffs fell victim to erosion due to a massive storm surge, Mr Cronin said it lacked that severity.

"We were all ready for something but it didn't quite happen."

MetService said it was concerned about the potential wind, wave and rain impacts from a rapidly intensifying storm heading for northern New Zealand by Saturday, striking first in Northland and Auckland before reaching Bay of Plenty and Gisborne on Sunday.

The unnamed low which originated in the tropics is coming from the Queensland coast, and was more intense than the current typical winter storm.

"This is no ordinary storm. It's one of the largest and deepest lows we've seen for some years," MetService spokesman Brian Kreft said.

"By the time this system reaches northern New Zealand on Saturday, it is likely to have significant destructive potential."

Damaging gales and very heavy downpours were possible in many North Island areas, and strong winds would create treacherous seas.

Forecasters expected to know more precisely tomorrow what areas would be affected, and were likely to issue weather warnings.

Today, Wellington residents awoke to southerly gales of up to 117kmh lashing the region.

The strongest winds struck this morning, with wind speeds of 117kmh registered at Mt Kaukau about 6am, while the suburb of Kelburn registered winds of 106kmh.

A duty forecaster at the MetService, where the Kelburn readings are taken, said: "Fortunately we're pretty well insulated here ... looking out the window the trees are bending over here."

HIGH SEAS RESCUE

Yesterday, massive waves hurled debris over roads and almost dragged a man to his death while slips and flooding closed roads in the lower North Island.

Floodwater, knee-high in places, temporarily shut the road through Paekakariki during the evening peak hour, causing long queues for traffic that crawled along rock and debris-strewn Centennial Highway.

Water gushed through one Paraparaumu house, leaving carpets and possessions sodden.

The Parade, at Paekakariki, was shut for about an hour during the midday high tide after waves ripped out the top layer of a new walkway behind the seawall and threw rocks and debris over the road.

Paekakariki man Neil Thomas was swept off the shore by a big wave as he took photos. A woman handed her young child to a stranger and leapt into the water to drag him to safety

"I blacked out and the next thing I know there's this woman pulling me out of the water. She saved my life," he told 3 News.

- NZPA and The Dominion Post