Windy blast taste of things to come

Floods washed out an Arthurs Pass bridge and almost caught Nelson campers in their tents. Photo / 3NEWS

A major storm has swept right through the country, leaving warm, summer temperatures for the rest of the week.

But MetService warns that Auckland, the Coromandel Peninsula and Bay of Plenty could get some messy weather for New Year's Eve celebrations.

Forecaster Oliver Druce said that from tomorrow, the top half of the North Island would return to last week's mediocre weather - cloudy, humid and patchy with showers.

"There could be some problems here and there ... it may not be that great with cloud and some drizzle, whereas the rest of New Zealand will be fine," Mr Druce said.

Yesterday's storm wreaked havoc across holiday spots, a caravan being rolled by violent gusts and almost 100 campers evacuated just minutes before 4m floods swept in.

Emergency services attended more than 100 call-outs due to damage caused by the weather.

Winds knocked down trees and power lines in the central North Island, blew trampolines and roof tiles in the air in the Wellington region, and swept off tarpaulins placed over earthquake-damaged roofs in Christchurch.

Weatherwatch analyst Philip Duncan said campers had been exposed to severe gusts in Northland, Auckland, the Coromandel, Gisborne, Hawkes Bay and Taranaki.

Twelve-thousand campers arrived in blustery conditions at BW Camping in Gisborne for the Rhythm and Vines music festival.

Spokesman Toby Burrows said tents were blown down during the day as people struggled to get them up.

"It's been really high gusts causing a bit of havoc," he said.

Rhythm and Vines spokeswoman Jo Bell said wind speeds had reached 100km/h at the beachfront site.

The Eketahuna fire brigade, in Wairarapa, was called out to a caravan rolled by gusts as the day's worst winds howled through the lower North Island.

A gust of 172km/h was recorded on Mt Kaukau in Wellington during the afternoon.

In the South Island, 98 campers were given 30 minutes to evacuate in the early morning from Pelorus Bridge Camp, near Nelson.

Camp manager Craig Neal said the storm had roughed up the campsite.

"To put it mildly, holy s*** yes," Mr Neal said.

"We lost two cars. Most of the camp ground was 4m underwater, and all the tents were left down there."

He had rushed down at 4.30am to wake every camper and get them to abandon their belongings, he said.

The displaced campers then gathered in a nearby coffee shop to wait out the storm.

Later, Mr Neal walked back down to the campsite to find it was a complete wreck.

"It's like a bomb's gone off. Everywhere is covered with four inches of mud, silt, debris and what's left of tents," he said.

"It looks like that's it for summer."

On the other side of Nelson, power was lost in the Rockville and Bainham areas, with one bridge washed away.

Fire service staff also received calls from areas of the West Coast that they were unable to reach because of the flooding.

Shift manager Andrew Norris said residents just had to wait for water levels to drop.