Top Energy linemen repair powerlines brought down by a pine tree on Wiroa Rd neat Kerikeri. Photo / Peter de Graaf
Over 22,000 Northlanders lost power over the weekend as Cyclone Dovi raged across the region.
Lines company Top Energy estimates that 17,000 of their customers were without power during the peak of the storm on Saturday night and managed to restore connections to 8000 households by midday Sunday.
Crews were in the field all day cutting trees out of powerlines.
By 3pm Sunday the entire Aupōuri Peninsula and much of rural Kaitaia was still affected, as was North Hokianga, large swathes of Doubtless Bay, Horeke, Ōkaikau, Ōhaeawai and Waimamaku. Repair work had been suspended about 10pm the night for safety reasons as trees continued to fall.
Some people may be without power until Monday.
Lines company Northpower counted up to 5000 customers without power and urged people to be prepared for lengthy outages as its crews work to identify damage across the network, make lines safe and remedy the repairs.
Northpower said the damage to the network was extensive, with more reports of damage and lines down coming in throughout Sunday and ongoing high winds causing further issues.
Crews were patrolling lines to understand the extent of the damage.
In many areas trees and vegetation need to be removed before repairs can begin.
Extra resources are being brought in to deal with this event.
"We ask that people are patient as our team work in very difficult conditions," network general manager Josie Boyd said.
"We are working hard, but it would be prudent for people who are impacted to plan to have no power all of today and possibly into tomorrow.
"We will update our website with the latest information on individual outages as it comes to hand."
Boyd said that safety of the crews and the public are top priority, and the focus was on making sites safe, prioritising repairs to bring power back on to larger areas and critical sites first.
Parts of the region also lost connection to the mobile, broadband and landline services as the Spark network was damaged during the storm.
Police were called out to over 35 weather-related incidents overnight Saturday/Sunday.
A falling tree damaged a home in Kauri, Whangārei, with fire crews being called out to the property twice. The roof is believed to have come off. No one was injured.
The worst maritime casualty of the storm is thought to be the Albatross V, a former tug converted into a charter boat which had been moored at Matauwhi Bay in Russell.
During the night the vessel broke free and was blown onto a rocky headland at the entrance to Orongo Bay.
As of Sunday afternoon, the vessel was upright but wedged firmly on the rocks. The extent of the damage was not yet known.
The historic kauri-built Albatross V offered cruise and charter fishing trips around the Bay of Islands.
Northland Harbourmaster Jim Lyle said one other boat had dragged its anchor and run aground in Mangonui Harbour — it was the second time for that particular vessel — while a number of boats had dragged their moorings in locations such as Okiato in the Bay of Islands.
Some of those boats may have sustained damage by bumping into each other but none had broken their moorings.
The full tally of damage would become clear in coming days as people checked their boats.
However, given the strength of some of the wind gusts — 65 knots (120km/h) was recorded at Tapeka Pt near Russell — Northland had escaped relatively lightly, Lyle said.
MetService meteorologist Peter Little said while Northland recorded little rain, strong north-easterly winds were detected across the region.
Okahu Island in the Bay of Islands recorded gusts of 144km/h around 5am; Okaihau measured 137km/h at its peak at 4am; Cape Reinga reported 128km/h at 1am and Tutukaka 122km/h at 6am.
Northland's strong winds warning was lifted by midday Sunday.
The meteorologist shared some good news for the region: the humidity that has plagued the region for weeks is finally gone and temperatures will drop to early-mid 20s during the day and to 13C-15C at night.
Passenger ferries between Paihia and Russell were suspended on Saturday evening due to the wild weather and replaced by a bus service travelling via the Ōpua car ferry. The Bay Belle II resumed sailing around 11am on Sunday.
Many volunteer fire brigades faced a ''horrendous'' night racing from one incident to another with no chance to sleep or even go back to the station until well after daybreak.
Kerikeri Fire Brigade had 16 call-outs between 11pm Saturday and noon on Sunday, almost all for fallen trees.
Fire chief Les Wasson said one call took the brigade as far as North Hokianga because a backup water tanker was needed when a tree brought down power lines onto scrub, starting fires on both sides of West Coast Rd near Panguru.
On their way home the crew found their way blocked by a tree and live power lines on Wiroa Rd; their detour, via Waimate North Rd, was also blocked.
''We ended up cutting trees just to get home. It was trees across roads, trees across power lines, just trees, trees, trees. The boys were run off their feet going from job to job. It was horrendous, and the wind was diabolical.''
While volunteer firefighters and roading contractors struggled to keep up, in many places locals got out their chainsaws and did the job of clearing roads themselves. By 9am most were open again.
Wiroa Rd, which links Kerikeri and Bay of Islands Airport, was closed for a significant period because a large pine tree was not only blocking the road, it had also pulled down power lines and left debris in the top of a power pole.
Flatmates Billy Smart, Alex Garrett and Dylan Berling had been cutting up a tree blocking their driveway when they were approached by a neighbour asking if they could take care of the tree across the road as well.
Smart said once the power had been isolated they made short work of the tree, then cut it up for winter firewood.
Berling said they were happy to help.
''There's no power. What else can we do?"
Kaitaia fire chief Craig Rogers said his brigade responded to seven callouts between 10pm Saturday and 10am Sunday.
The two crews fighting the scrub fire near Panguru left the station around 10pm and didn't get back until 8am.
Like Kerikeri, most call-outs were related to downed trees and powerlines.
A lack of power and communications made the night even more challenging, Rogers said.
While the lights stayed on central Kaitaia, areas just outside town were still without power at 4pm on Sunday.
Spark's cellphone network went down early Sunday morning with service only starting to return late in the afternoon.
Fire and Emergency's own radio system was also experiencing problems, further hampering firefighters' ability to communicate.
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