Fire in remote forest amid a windy warm Hawke's Bay

Warm but windy weather still had the crowds out on Napier's beachfront pathways. Photo / Paul Taylor

Firefighters were understood mid-afternoon today to be still attending a fire in a forestry block in the Sherenden district west of Hastings.

Fanned by gusting winds which had buffeted much of Hawke's Bay since Friday, the fire, in Castle Peak Forest, on the northern side of Taihape Rd, was reported to New Zealand Fire and Emergency at 9.55pm on Saturday.

At least one helicopter, two full-time FENZ crews and two volunteer crews from Heretaunga rural fire forces had been involved, along with forest firefighters.

While staff at De La Terre Winery in Sherenden said winds in the area appeared to have dropped off, winds at Hawke's Bay Airport and on the Takapau Plains had hit peaks of 63km/h and 74km/h respectively in the hour to 2pm, during which time Napier and Hastings were recording the warmest temperatures in New Zealand, at 19-20 degrees.

Further south on the coast, at Cape Turnagain, one of the windiest stations in the North Island, there had been winds of up to 133km/h.

A new strong wind watch issued by nationwide weather agency MetService at 9am on Sunday warned of strong westerly winds, gale-force in exposed places for the period to midnight, for the area south of Hastings into the Tararua district.

A meteorologist described the conditions as dry westerly and "very good conditions for drying the washing," and said while there would be a change to the southwest, winds could be expected in Hawke's Bay for several days this week, but not as strong as during the weekend.

Electricity supply companies had had numerous calls to lines issues, which included lines reported on the road at Swamp road mid-afternoon.

Unison Networks relationships manager Danny Gough said there had been a lot of incidents of cuts to supply, with possibly 30 lines staff working in Hawke's Bay today to help restore supply as soon as possible. Loss of supply had been short in most cases, and in terms of damage there had been "nothing too extensive," he said.

Eastern District Police also reported no major issues on the highways.