As winds up to 130kmh batter the capital, Air New Zealand has delayed or cancelled flights to or from centres including Dunedin, Queenstown, Auckland, Hamilton and Christchurch.
The MetService has predicted severe the northwest gales in the region will ease late this evening.
The wild weather in Wellington comes after strong winds blasted parts of the South Island last night, with gusts of up to 179kmh in Southland.
Power was still out in parts of Central Otago this morning after strong winds caused outages on the Aurora Energy network.
High winds caused damage to power poles and caused trees to clash into overhead lines, an Aurora Energy spokesman said.
"We understand the inconvenience that power outages cause and we will be working hard to restore power to remaining consumers as soon as possibl,'' the spokesman said.
Delta crews responded overnight by restoring power where possible and repair work recommenced this morning.
Speargrass Flat Rd closed from Domain Rd to Arrowtown-Lake Hayes Rd. Glenorchy and Mt Aspiring Rds closed, no detour pic.twitter.com/CGbwa5Rwos
— QLDC (@QueenstownLakes) November 26, 2015
Power was out this morning to consumers in Wanaka, Dalefield, Lake Hayes, Lake Hayes Estate, The Neck and Makarora, Cardrona, Closeburn and Glenorchy, Springvale and parts of Alexandra.
Power had been restored in East Taieri, except for consumers in McMaster Rd in Saddle Hill, the spokesman said.
Service would be restored after Delta crews cleaned a large tree which was felled last night.
Power had been restored to consumers in North East Valley but three consumers in Port Chalmers remained without power late this morning.
In the Wakatipu Basin, winds had damaged power poles and brought down power lines, Delta spokesman Gary Johnson said
Crews worked overnight to restore power where possible, and repairs resumed this morning at daybreak, Mr Johnson said.
- Roading updates available here
The Glenorchy road has reopened at both ends, but the Queenstown District Lakes Council said motorists should expect delays as work was still continuing to clear fallen trees and debris.
Speargrass Flat Rd has also reopened, while work was expected to begin soon to clear the Moke Lake road.
The Kinloch road remains closed by by flooding.
QLDC communications manager Michele Poole urged drivers to take extreme care as all roads were likely to be affected by windblown debris.
Glenorchy resident Sonya Poplawski said power was cut at her home about 10pm yesterday.
She had started a generator as she did not expect power to be restored for some time.
Trees had come down all over the village, including at the primary school, although the school was open today, she said.
Further afield, State Highway 94 was closed for a while between Milford and Te Anau because of fallen trees, and there is surface flooding on some West Coast roads after heavy rain and wind overnight.
- additional reporting NZME/Damian George
