Chatham Islands Mayor Alfred Preece said a state of emergency was declared yesterday to ensure all residents were prepared.

Cyclone-torn Vanuatu is in desperate need of food, clothing, medicine and basic shelter - and a full recovery operation could cost hundreds of millions.

Live updates of Cyclone Pam's impact in New Zealand and the aftermath in devastated Pacific Island nations.

Volunteer Service Abroad said it could still not account for four Kiwi volunteers in Vanuatu.

Kiwi Kylie Steel was in Port Vila when the cyclone struck. After the cyclone passed she went in search of friends. Here's her story.

Dozens are feared dead on Vanuatu and up to 10,000 are homeless in the wake of Cyclone Pam.

New Zealanders in Vanuatu have been drafted in to help at the capital's main hospital after it was ravaged by Cyclone Pam.

Tropical Cyclone Pam is slowly weakening as it approaches NZ, but will still be "a very powerful tropical cyclone" as it passes the country within a few hundred kilometres.

Organisers of the NZ surf lifesaving championships in Gisborne blasted through the penultimate day's programme yesterday in a bid to keep ahead of the storm expected to slam into the area.

Many residents in Vanuatu were forced to hunker down for a second night in emergency shelters after venturing out yesterday to find their homes damaged or blown away, aid workers say.

NZ newlyweds have spent the last night of their honeymoon bunkered in a room with 230 other scared tourists as Cyclone Pam lashed Vanuatu.

Tropical cyclone Pam has been upgraded to category 3 and weather experts fear it could reach supercyclone levels as it slowly moves towards Vanuatu.

A low currently sitting in the Pacific, which is likely to be upgraded to a tropical cyclone, will have some impact on Northland later this week, weather boffins have predicted.

Thunderstorms are making their way down the country bringing heavy rain, particularly to the capital where several houses have been flooded.

Several centimetres of snow had fallen in New York City last night, as the region shutdown and settled in for a wild 24 hours.

Kiwis in New York and up the east coast of the United States were last night hunkering down as one of the biggest storms in history bore down on the region.

Severe thunderstorms may hit Dunedin, North Otago and Clutha this afternoon bringing heavy rain and hail as large as 20mm to some areas, MetService warns.

Auckland is in for a wet and windy start to the week, with heavy rain, gales and possible thunderstorms forecast for today.

Bad weather that lashed the North Island yesterday left thousands without power and put the bite on the Taste of Auckland Festival.

A year ago, Typhoon Haiyan created a series of storm surges that left several thousand people dead and around four million homeless.

Blustery winds of up to 160km/h are ripping through parts of the country today, with a series of weather warnings and watches in place, MetService says.

Ferries were cancelled, roads were closed and thousands were without power in Auckland as a wintry blast blew through yesterday.

A tropical storm was moving out into the Sea of Japan last night after lashing the country with rain and winds, leaving one person dead and more than 50 injured.