Wild weather has caused chaos in the upper North Island, cutting power to thousands of homes, uprooting trees and forcing the evacuation of freedom campers.
Flooding has closed State Highway 25 on the Coromandel Peninsula, cutting off access to Pauanui and Tairua from the south. And a twister has ripped through a King Country animal sanctuary.
As MetService advises people to prepare for more bad weather, new details have emerged about a rescue mission for a sunken yacht in which one man died in treacherous seas off the Northland coast.
Amy Williams reports
