Battered by wild weather, freezing temperatures

Wind and waves caused damage in Wellington yesterday while freezing temperatures hit the rest of the country.

Metservice said the weather system moved off the east coast of the country early yesterday afternoon, but rain was expected to return to the North Island late Sunday.

Earlier, snow closed some highways through the central North Island, some ferries were cancelled and debris was strewn around Wellington’s south coast.

State Highway 1 Desert Rd through the Central Plateau was closed by snow. Also closed was SH46 from Rangipo to the junction with SH47, as was SH47 from the junction with SH4 at National Park to the SH41 junction near

Turangi.

Snow flurries were also reported on the State Highway 2 Remutaka Hill Rd, between Wellington and Wairarapa.

Wellington’s East by West harbour ferries cancelled all sailings yesterday morning while Interislander cancelled its 2am and 6am services from Wellington as well as its 11am service from Picton.

Some other parts of the country recorded freezing temperatures with the Metservice website showing Twizel down to -6C, Tekapo getting to -4C, Blenheim, -3C, Taupo -1C, and Hamilton -1.5C.

Meanwhile, in the Wairarapa, about 90 homes near Martinborough were without power yesterday morning. Contractors were cleaning up debris around the Masterton district and dealing with flooding in town. Some rural roads east of Masterton near Castlepoint had been affected by slips, according to contractors.

There had been reports of debris on coastal roads in South Wairarapa which was being cleared by council contractors.