Power back on for most customers, Aurora says

A tree fell across this car belonging to a Larnach Castle employee in the staff carpark on Monday. PHOTO: SUPPLIED

Electricity company staff worked around the clock to restore power after high winds on Monday brought down lines across the South.

Only a few customers were still without power in Otago yesterday morning, Aurora Energy general manager of operations and network performance Matt Settle said.

The company was happy with how its network held up against the extreme winds across Otago.

"However, it did cause a number of unplanned outages associated with tree branches or other vegetation blowing into power lines.

"Power outages occurred in Alexandra and surrounding areas such as Omakau, Lauder and Ida Valley, the Roxburgh/Ettrick area, Arrowtown and parts of Dunedin.

"Thanks to our hard-working 24/7 fault response crews and control room staff, power was restored throughout the day and evening to all but a few customers."

High winds also caused issues for travellers, and Air New Zealand worked to reschedule passengers on flights yesterday after dozens of cancellations on Monday due to the high winds.

An Air NZ spokeswoman said it posted 93 domestic flight disruptions and three transtasman flight diversions.

"Around 12,000 customers were disrupted by Monday’s weather.

"Those who had their flight disrupted will be able to re-book through our website or app, but due to high customer demand with school holidays, flights are already quite full.

Wenita chief executive David Cormack said trees at its plantations around Dunedin held up well in the windy weather.

The forestry company would send a staff member up in an aircraft in the coming days to assess any damage that could not be seen from the road.