Southerly blaster hits Wellington
The clean-up begins today following a fierce southerly storm through central NZ, which left a trail of damage in its wake and at least two people injured.

The "southerly buster" ripped through the top of the South Island into Wellington about 4.30pm, bringing gusts of up to 130kmh and dumping up to 25 millimetres of rain – a week's worth – in just a few hours.

A mini-tornado ripped off roofs, tore out trees and cut power to thousands as emergency services scrambled to deal with hundreds of calls.

Commuters were also stranded after the Hutt train line was blocked by fallen trees and surface flooding brought peak-hour traffic to a crawl.

Temperatures dropped from 18.5 celsius to 8.5C within 10 minutes before winds left a trail of debris through the city.