Dozens of cyclists had their Otago Central Rail Trail experience cut short yesterday after high winds in and around Middlemarch made riding impossible.
Ranfurly Bike Hire owners Janet and Dick Parker and Sharon Thompson had to ‘‘rescue'' their clients with a van and two cars from places between Hyde and Rock and Pillar.
Mrs Parker said the company received phone calls from the cyclists at lunchtime yesterday saying the wind was so strong they could no longer continue.
The riders were taken to Middlemarch to catch rides home.
Mrs Parker said she had seen dozens of cyclists on the trail. Some who were travelling independently had to turn back and were being picked up, she said.
One woman had been blown off a bridge along with her bike, but she remounted and carried on to Middlemarch.
Trail Journeys, of Clyde, also had to rescue cyclists. Manager Shane O'Connor said the company had taken 27 cyclists off the trail.
Middlemarch Constable Helen Fincham-Putter said the winds would have been even stronger on higher, exposed areas of the rail trail, though she knew of one family with an 11-year-old girl who had managed to complete a ride from Hyde, despite the wind.
She was not aware of any property damage in the area.
In Dunedin, roofing iron was lifted and a tree blown over in a Port Chalmers street as strong winds battered the city.
A spokesman from the Royal Albatross Centre at Taiaroa Head said tours before 10.30am were cancelled due to the high winds.
Wind speeds had exceeded a safety limit of 99kmh, which made it too dangerous to take tour groups on to the hillside to view the birds.
Emergency services reported no other wind-related damage.
The beach around threatened sand sausage protective barriers at St Kilda was not eroded further, despite overnight winds powering 5m-high waves.
MetService recorded wind gusts of 120kmh at Swampy Summit at both 10am and 3pm, and of 100kmh at Dunedin International Airport yesterday morning.
