Power restored after 11 days to man 'feeling caveman-like' and another whose life depends on dialysis machine

Andy Robinson from Henderson described his power being restored as a "miracle". Photo / Dean Purcell

After 11 days without power, it's good news for a man who resorted to reading by the light of a street lamp and another whose life depends on his dialysis machine.

Andy Robinson, of Glendene in West Auckland, said he'd been making do with his BBQ and his torch since April 10, when much of the city was plunged into darkness after a savage storm.

"I worked out pretty quickly maybe my house was not going to be fixed," he said. "So I go to the basement and sit down there by the old campfire light, and heat food on the barbecue."

After enquiries were made by the Herald on Sunday, Robinson's home was reconnected.

Yesterday at about 3.40pm he had a knock on his door from a contractor, who Robinson described as "a miracle".

It was a quick fix and only took 10 minutes to restore his power.

"He told me there had been others with no power accosting him in the street trying to drag him to theirs."

Robinson had since been able to flick on his freezer and has plans to collect the "expensive meat" he left at his neighbour's.

Earlier he told the Herald he was so sick of having cold showers and feeling like a "caveman" he went to the local swimming pool.

Swanson resident Laurence O'Connor, 63, hadn't been able to use his dialysis machine to manage his condition for 11 days, having to travel instead to a clinic in Albany.

Laurence O'Connor had been travelling to a dialysis clinic this past week as he couldn't use his own machine. Photo / Supplied

He was in the middle of dialysing on the night of the storm when power cut out.

"I had to pump my blood back in quickly. The machine has 20 minutes' battery life, but it is a bit scary."

O'Connor said he was told six times by Vector that his power had been restored, when it remained off.

"My neighbour and I are scratching our heads and thinking, 'are we crazy?'... I don't want a fuss, but I thought I might get a bit of sympathy with having to dialyse."

To O'Connor's relief it was restored about 6.30pm yesterday.

Fierce winds of up to 212km/h at Manukau Heads uprooted trees, ripped roofs from buildings and knocked out power to 180,000 homes and businesses on April 10.

Weather forecasters said it was equivalent in force to a Category 2 cyclone.

Vector contractors have been working round the clock to reconnect properties.

Yesterday morning, it said only five Auckland properties remained without power, however Robinson and O'Connor said that was incorrect.

"There are a lot more than five houses without power," Robinson said.

He said while Vector had been to fix the main fault on the line, it hadn't checked individual households.

Robinson said he could see where an overhead wire was dangling from the pole - on the side he said was Vector's responsibility - where an insulator had fallen off an "ancient" wooden crossbar.

His was the only house on the street with the lights still out, and he thought that might be why he had been forgotten.

Vector said all known storm-related network faults except five had been repaired.

It said the service lines (the lines that connect power from the network directly to a property) were not the responsibility of Vector, but of individual property owners.

Field staff, where it was possible and safe to do so, were repairing any damage they saw.

"If someone is continuing to experience an outage, they need to get in touch with Vector and let us know - it may be that there is an issue with their service line, which we can send a crew to check out for that customer," it said.