A man drove past schools at speeds of 160km/h in an effort to evade police because he was worried he would not see his newborn baby, a court has been told.

If Matt Charlton had taken home a large spider he found crawling through Pongaroa forestry he'd have "been out on his ear so fast" he wouldn't have had time to think twice, his partner Renee Floyd says.

A bus carrying 18 school children left the road, apparently blown off, near Eketahuna this morning as strong winds hammer the lower North and South islands.