Wairarapa winds wreck holiday

CRUNCH:High winds near Mt Bruce flipped a caravan on its side, rolling the towing ute on to its roof. PHOTO/LYNDA FERINGA

A rogue blast of wind has been blamed for blowing away the holiday plans of a Wairarapa couple after flipping their caravan and vehicle soon after they set out yesterday morning.

Bideford farmer Rob Joblin and his wife Deborah were travelling to Waikato in their late-model ute with a quad bike on the back and a caravan in tow, when a gust of wind lifted the 6.5m mobile home near a tree-lined stretch of SH2 at Mt Bruce about 9am yesterday.

The road was clear of traffic apart from a truck following them, Mr Joblin said, when the wind flipped the caravan, which he bought only six months ago, "and that flipped the ute over as well". The quad bike tumbled from its mooring.

"It all happened in slow motion. I could see the caravan in the rear vision mirror right up on its wheels and thought if I could get through to the trees, we'd be right. It'd been good as gold until we came through to here, it hadn't even pushed us around. It was just one gust."

The couple crawled unharmed from the upside-down ute that had been left facing back towards Masterton, he said, and called emergency services.

"People immediately stopped and were very good in helping us. It all happened in very slow motion and I suspect it was just that one gust - wrong place, wrong time."

Friends of the couple were planning to travel to the same holiday destination today, Mr Joblin said, and he regretted his decision to set out yesterday.

"I knew there was bad weather forecast but thought we'd get through before it came. I'm farming [at] Bideford and it gets windy out there too. I should have known better."

Mr Joblin said he and his wife would reconsider their holiday plans and "regroup - we'll have to work something else out I guess".

"We'll have to figure out what we can do and what we can't."

High winds pummelled firefighters, police and friends of the couple who had helped remove belongings from the caravan and ute after the crash, and traffic was halted briefly while paramedics checked the couple for injuries and the caravan, ute and debris were cleared from the road.

Eketahuna Police Constable Donna Olliver said high winds can plague drivers and motorcyclists and endanger high-side trucks and towed caravans on the stretch of road from Masterton to Mt Bruce and Eketahuna. Vehicles flipped "like turtles" on the stretch of road were not uncommon, she said.

She said drivers must heed weather warnings and should "park and wait for improvement" when road conditions become threatening or dangerous.

MetService duty forecaster Hannah Moes said a warning was issued for Canterbury and Wairarapa about 8.40am yesterday about strong to gale northwesterlies that were expected to reach 120km/h in exposed inland areas as a front rapidly crossed the regions.

She said winds in Masterton had peaked at 8am at 65km/h and at 9am were still gusting to more than 60km/h. Maximum morning gusts of 144km/h were recorded at Castlepoint at 11am and had reached 130km/h at Cape Turnagain.

Meanwhile, Featherston firefighters secured a roof high wind had lifted from a home in Watt St just after 9am and also were called to downed powerlines on SH53 near Tauherenikau about 12.15pm. Powerco said 630 customers lost power due to high winds.