Wind speeds reach 145km/h in Waikanae Beach

Laurie Petherick's Waikanae Beach home is completely exposed to the elements. Photo / Grace Odlum

When huge winds hit the Wellington region on Sunday, September 17, Waikanae Beach local Laurie Petherick was almost convinced it was an earthquake.

He was standing at the top of his staircase, just before 12am, when the whole house started shaking, and part of his weather machine broke off the roof and started banging against the side of the house.

It wasn’t an earthquake though, and when he went outside onto his deck, in the pitch black, to find the source of the banging, he was nearly blown off his feet by the heavy wind.

Chairs on his deck were also blowing around, and he said a small trellis archway in their garden looked like it would come down at any moment.

As an avid kiteboarder and an ex-wind surfer, Petherick had a weather machine installed on his roof decades ago, and so he checked his phone to see what speed the wind was.

Despite losing a part in the wind, his weather machine was luckily not broken, and was showing readings of wind gusts up to 78.2 knots, or 145km/h.

He’s lived in the Wellington region for quite a long time, and said it was the worst wind he’s felt since he was a teenager, and the worst recorded in over 20 years.

Petherick’s house is right on the Waimanu Lagoon, overlooking the Waikanae River boundary and the ocean, so they’re pretty exposed to the elements and get hit pretty hard by wind.

In fact, he said it’s not unusual to see small tornado-like “whirlies” in the ocean, but they usually dissipate before they reach the shore.

He and his wife had a sleepless night, since the banging on their roof kept them awake, and they were prepared to board up blown in windows.

Luckily, their home didn’t front much damage, other than a television aerial which needed to be fixed, but Petherick said it was still an awful experience.

“It was the scariest thing I’ve witnessed.”