Wild weather sparks Auckland power outage: Vector can't say how many homes still affected

Thousands of properties in Auckland experienced power cuts yesterday. Photo / File

Wild winds knocked out power to 9000 Auckland properties yesterday - and while some houses remain without electricity today Vector can't say how many homes are affected.

Blustery winds caused the mass outages and a number of small, localised faults remained a problem late yesterday evening.

West Auckland resident Robert Grant's Ranui home has been experiencing intermittent power cuts since Thursday and was again without power this morning.

"Our computers have already blown up twice," Grant said.

Grant said they had already used two trailers of wood to keep a fire going in a bid to light the Urlich Drive home and keep it warm.

Meanwhile in northern Auckland, an Albany Heights resident reported the power had come back on for Gills Rd in the early hours of this morning, after nearly 12 hours.

This morning, a Vector spokesman was unable to confirm how many properties are still affected.

"After working through the night and continuing to restore power there are still a number of cases where individual houses remain without power, even though the larger restoration work of feeders and the high voltage network is complete," he said.

"These remaining individual outages are spread over the city but predominantly in the west and north."

Today's focus would be on responding to each of these in turn, he said.

"Vector would like to thank customers for their patience and encourage them to follow updates relative to their address at our Outage Centre, available on vector.co.nz/outages."

The power outages continue as a cold morning is expected for many because a polar blast started moving up the country last night.

While in the Auckland the forecast is clear, apart from evening cloud, the high is set to reach 16C.

Fire crews clear branches that buried a vehicle in Epsom, Auckland.

Sub-zero temperatures were expected overnight across the South Island - including down to -2C in Queenstown and -3C at Mt Cook - while many in the North Island could expect morning lows of just 8C degrees.