Wild weather hits North

Wild weather wreaked havoc in the western Bay of Plenty and north of Auckland this afternoon with a mini tornado, giant hailstones, waterspouts and heavy rain causing floods and property damage.

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Two thousand shoppers were evacuated from the Bayfair Shopping Centre in Mt Maunganui after a manhole collapsed sending floodwater into the building.

Roads were also flooded, causing severe traffic disruption in the Mt Maunganui town centre.

Several residents reported seeing waterspouts, funnel-shaped columns of water, which form when a whirlwind draws up a mass of water.

Residents of a rented home in Westpark Glen, Warkworth, escaped unharmed this afternoon after the tornado pulled the roof off, scattering the tiles in their backyard and puncturing holes through the ceiling.

"I heard it coming and once it was on us I thought it was a big gust of wind," says Murray Dunn. "I could see things being thrown around outside and the manhole inside was lifting up. It lasted about 30 seconds."

Warkworth firefighters quickly removed a number of tiles to stop them falling through the ceiling. A roofing contractor is repairing the damage.

Resident Raewyn Hudson said the tornado came from the northwest and went southeast down the no exit road. It knocked over TV aerials, birdbaths, uprooted small trees and broke branches.

"The rain was horizontal," she says. "It twisted and I thought 'what's happening'. It was scary."

Another neighbour was left looking for his greenhouse roof, and a caravan on Melwood Dr tipped on to its side.

The tornado lost momentum as it passed over the town's retail area and headed towards Snells Beach.

Power was cut in Warkworth for about 10 minutes.

In the Bay of Plenty, the storm badly damaged a shopping centre and coated roads with hail and ice.

A Fire Service spokesman there had been "extensive damage" to the shopping centre in Mt Maunganui.

"There's a lot of hail and it sounds like it's blocked the drains and basically the mall got flooded from that," he said.

Sections of the ceiling had also fallen down and damaged the sprinkler system.

Flooding had hit roads in the area, with Senior Sergeant Deirdre Lack of Mt Maunganui Police saying the hail had blocked drains and prevented the heavy rain from draining away.

"It was pretty bad. We actually had to divert traffic due to the flooding – there were cars stuck in it," she said.

Ms Lack said the flooding had lessened and expected the roads to be back to normal in an hour.

Tauranga City Council spokesman Marcel Currin said that most of the surface flooding was at Mount Maunganui and Papamoa.

Mr Currin said it appeared the damage to the roof of the mall, which caused the ceiling to collapse, was due to the heavy hail.

Several residents reported seeing waterspouts, funnel-shaped columns of water, which form when a whirlwind draws up a mass of water.

Mt Maunganui resident Wattie Newtown said he watched five waterspouts, one which lasted five to 10 minutes.

He said the winds that accompanied the spouts were horrendous, and the hailstorm that followed left the beach looking like it was coated in snow. The hailstones were 10 centimetres deep in places.

Mt Maunganui photographer Katherine Payne said she saw a waterspout coming in past Motiti Island towards the shore at Papamoa East.

"It was really mesmerising watching the wind spinning it round and round. It was heading inland so I didn't stand around too long to watch it.

"Most residents here are well aware of the tsunami risk. I work from home so I'd packed up my laptop to be on the safe side," Ms Payne said.

Oceanbeach Road in Mount Maunganui has recently been opened to traffic though motorists are being urged to drive carefully due to ice on the road surface.

Ice had also formed on State Highway 2.

Bad weather was forecast to remain in the area.

- MICHAEL FOX and MICHAEL FIELD with NZPA

- © Fairfax NZ News