Wild weather whipped through Central Otago on Saturday evening with a tornado leaving a trail of chaos in its wake.
Emergency services were called to Leaning Rock Rd after reports the twister had hit a house.
Police received multiple calls but no injuries were reported, a spokesman said.
Four fire trucks were sent to Springvale . All had left by 7.16pm.
Alexandra man Connor Driver was driving and pulled over to capture the moment the tornado hit.
His photos show a caravan flying through the air in pieces after being torn apart.
"That explosion of bits was a camper getting ripped apart. We went up to make sure the people were OK at this house that had part of their roof go flying.
"They were in shock but all OK. The police and fire department were pulling up at that point, so we took off," he said.
The twister was a "scary" experience for Ryan McDowell.
The tornado ripped through his property leaving shards of glass in walls, looking like bullets.
Mr McDowell said he and another person were outside watching the tornado when they saw rubbish flying around and ran inside.
It was a frightening experience but no-one in the house was hurt, he said.
Emergency crews arrived shortly after and advised the occupants to vacate.
"I just came out to check on it — we got a phone call from the neighbours saying our stuff was just not here, and we soon found out that it wasn’t."
A 2.5m x 2.5m portacom containing hunting gear and other equipment was lost to the tornado, with the only evidence of its existence debris strewn across paddocks.
"There’s remnants of it about 50m over yonder over there and about 100m in the opposite direction over by the road from the tornado ... and now we’ve got to clean it up. There’s s... everywhere," Mr Allan said.
An internet cable at the property was also ripped up and damaged.
"My workmate who was in Alexandra noticed that the spiral was forming out here and he’s like, ‘Oh let’s go have a look at it’."
"He was about halfway down the road when we came past and he’s like, ‘Oh, hopefully that’s not your place’ — it was."
Video footage of the tornado hitting a house showed the strength and violent force of the twister with wild winds seen whipping around parked vehicles, sending large pieces of debris flying.
A witness described the moment the tornado hit, damaging four houses and obliterating a caravan as "incredible and chilling".
The twister was seen in Clyde, Alexandra and Chatto Creek with one woman posting on social media: "Never heard continuous thunder like we had here tonight in Alexandra".
— Additional reporting RNZ
