'Off the chart': The windiest place in NZ last night had gusts of up to 213km/h

People on the Manukau Heads are picking up the pieces after being the windiest place in New Zealand last night.

The mean wind speed was 126km/h and they had gusts up to 213km/h. The data, which was recorded at the iconic lighthouse was only around 10km/h below the all time record.

Brian Hamilton, who is known as the local weatherman, recorded winds up to 160km/h on his property. He said this was the strongest storm in around 13 years, before that it would have been in the 1980s or 1990s.

"We are used to the wind, but we don't normally get it that strong.

"Pine trees smashed in the area. Iron off house roofs, power poles snapped, road signs snapped.

"It peaked at 9pm and for around half an hour we were getting hurricane-force winds."

Local "weather man" Brian Hamilton recorded gusts up to 160km/hr on his property on Manukau Heads. Photo / Supplied

Hamilton's wind turbine blew itself to bits and his glass balustrade and TV-aerial were destroyed.

Liz Warren has lived on Manukau Heads for 24 years and said she had never seen weather as wild as last night before.

"Everything was just rattling, you could just hear things rolling around outside.

"The power flickered on and off for quite a while then it just disappeared."

Warren said neighbours had been checking on each other. She was staying home from work at a daycare as the child she looked after couldn't come in.

"My husband came home from night shift and had to tow a tree out of the way so he could get home. Lucky he did because it cleared the way so everyone could get through.

"We'll survive."

Huge pine trees were felled by the wind. Photo / Supplied

MetService meteorologist April Clark confirmed that the lighthouse recorded gusts up to 213km/h between 9pm and 10pm last night. Clark said Manukau Heads was the windiest place in Auckland.

"The gusts are so high my scale goes off the chart."

MetService meteorologist Tom Adams confirmed Manukau Heads had the highest gust speed and mean wind speed. The mean wind speed was 126km/h, Mt Tongariro was the second highest at 118km/h.

The strongest gusts got to 213km/h on the Manukau Heads, second was Separation Point which gusted to 144km/h.

"A gust is a very brief burst of strong winds, it's not what you'd expect the whole of the time. The mean speed is more indicative of what you're generally experiencing."