A heavy downpour of hail made this Tauranga home look like a winter wonderland. Photo / Justine Laidlaw.
A burst of hail turned some North Island backyards into winter wonderlands on Sunday evening.
Auckland and Tauranga residents posted photos online of their properties covered in hail, resembling homes in England in the middle of winter.
A Mt Wellington resident said the "surprise" downpour of hail started around 7.50pm and lasted for 6-7 minutes.
He said the noise of the hail on the roof was a very loud, banging noise - but 30 minutes later, the hail had melted and the sun was shining.
Residents in other parts of Auckland also reported blankets of hail covering their backyards.
Meanwhile, Tauranga also got a heavy lashing of hail on Sunday.
Justine Laidlaw posted photos of her Oropi property coated in thick layers of hail.
"We got hammered with a freak hailstorm earlier in rural Oropi Tauranga [on Sunday] which lasted over 30 minutes," she said.
"Just prior, the temperature plummeted and then down came the hail. My vegetable garden looks a bit worse for wear; courgettes, tomatoes, and other plants have been hammered.
"But Nelly the 5-month-old puppy thought it was heaps of fun afterwards."
The showers, heavy thunderstorms, and hail MetService forecast for Tauranga on Sunday was expected to clear overnight - with a fine day and a high of 22C forecast for today.
Auckland also looks sunnier today - with the city in for a fine day with southwesterlies and a high of 19C.
She is grateful 'he's not lost any more' but has few answers about how her son died.