A Hamilton woman and her small children have been forced to abandon their Bader house after a giant tree split in half and was left teetering over their property.

During Tuesday night's wild weather of heavy rain and strong winds a large tree on Marissa Abernathy's property split in two, with half landing on the road blocking access to the Manor Place cul-de-sac about 9pm.

Firefighters cut enough of the tree to enable one-way access to the trapped residents, while Ms Abernathy took her children to her mother's house.

The falling tree sent neighbours running out into the street.

"It shook the house when it fell, you could feel the floor shake."

An arborist was at the house on Wednesday but only had time to cut half the tree down, and will return to finish it next week.

Ms Abernathy and her children will not be returning to their house until the work is complete.

But now she is worried about how to raise $1000 for the cost of the arborist as the tree was on her property.

"I'm freaking out about the bill, it's going to be over $1000," she said. "I've got three kids ... I'm not sure how I'm going to pay for it."

MetService duty forecaster Melissa Roux said the Waikato and King Country could expect the weather to calm as the weekend approached.

"It is easing [last night] and [today] looks like fine spells with a few showers on and off during the day. It will be quite an improvement [on Tuesday]."

However, she said there would still be strong southwesterlies in exposed places.

Hamilton and Thames could expect highs of 15 degrees Celsius while Waitomo would have 14C.

The trough which brought thunderstorms – including heavy rain and possible tornadoes – up from the South Island was expected to hit Waitomo last night.

- © Fairfax NZ News