Bay of Plenty was blasted by strong winds overnight.
Strong wind gusts have belted Bay of Plenty over night, sending trampolines flying, destroying sheds and gazebos, and pulling trees out of the ground.
Rotorua's Kirsten Unuwai had a gazebo at her Koutu home destroyed.
"It was quite scary and very loud," she said.
"I could hear loud banging sounds outside - it was my gazebo, one of the poles snapped and was smashing against the walls. My son woke up crying, he was very scared so I turned the TV on to block the sound out so we could get to sleep.
"My house is an old style home so you can imagine the noises; creeks, curtain's moving even though the windows are closed. I was thinking 'I hope no big trees have snapped and fallen onto houses or blocked roads'."
A trampoline was carried about 30m in Katikati. Photo / Supplied
Katikati's Vicky Allen woke this morning to find her trampoline had flown across the backyard.
"It's blown approximately 30m away into the shelter belt. I can't see any damage to the shelter belt but the tramp is buckled and the poles for the safety net are buckled and broken.
The trampoline was left buckled after being blown across a backyard. Photo / Supplied
Tauranga's James Lowes recorded a video of the strong wind gusts in Pāpāmoa which he described as "pretty intense".
"They had gotten up a bit in the afternoon but definitely intensified late evening. [The video] was taken at 11pm. It sounded like being in a wind tunnel with constant wind. The walls of the house definitely had a slight shake to them when the gusts came through.
"I do feel sorry for the developers next door trying to manage dust from the empty subdivision next door. They'll have a job on their hands I'm sure."
A shed destroyed in Rotorua this morning. Photo / Supplied
Tauranga's Trent Salvatierra, an administrator on the BOP & Waikato Weather and Natural Event Facebook page, said a wind gust of 101.5kph was recorded at his weather station in Matapihi at 7.15pm yesterday.
Another gust of 66.6kmh was recorded at 12.45am today.
"Very strong westerlies for sure, thanks to a sweeping cold front moving north over the North Island," he said.
"Yesterday, the average wind speed was 46kmh for a 24 hour period. Winds should ease this evening."
A tree was torn from the ground at Linton Park, Rotorua. Photo / Supplied
A MetService spokeswoman said a wind gust of 90kmh was recorded in Mamaku about 7am today and gusts up to 70kmh were recorded in Tauranga about 8pm yesterday. Rotorua gusts got up to 68kmh between 1-2am.
She said gusts were less likely to cause significant damage than sustained strong wind.
Another casualty of the wind in the region over night. Photo / Supplied
"The forecast for Bay of Plenty is some cloud this morning and with that there could be some isolated showers, mostly about the Kaimai Ranges.
