A State of Emergency has been lifted from parts of Wellington’s southern and eastern wards after large swells and strong winds hit the region.
The dangerous conditions were driven by a deep low-pressure system south of New Zealand, generating powerful southwesterly winds across the Southern Ocean.
The combination of strong winds and a long "fetch" — the distance over which waves can build — has produced swells of up to 11.6m at Baring Head, while wind gusts at Mount Kaukau reached 129km/h about 2pm.
Wellington City Mayor Andrew Little lifted the local state of emergency in the Southern and Eastern wards after 5pm on Tuesday.
“We’ve seen waves as high as 11m but they’re not coming as frequently as MetService was predicting,” Little said.
“The advice is the danger has reduced sufficiently to lift the local State of Emergency.
“Traffic cordons will be removed and residents will very soon be able to return to homes and businesses along the south coast.
“Please take care when travelling through the area and obey all road signage. There may be debris on the road, and surfaces may be slick.
“We’re not fully back to normal. There is still risk. We have another heavy swell high tide from 9.45pm tonight to 1.45am tomorrow. We’ll be keeping a watch on that swell and if you’re near the south coast you should too. "
Homes evacuated ahead of huge waves that tossed rocks across the roads of the capital. (Source: 1News)
Little said the heavy swells meant there was a chance "screened but untreated" wastewater could be pushed closer to shore from the Moa Point long outfall.
“I know some people are worried about contaminated sea spray. The public health advice is there is not expected to be a significant health risk from either inhaled or settled sea spray - but limit contact where you can, and wash and dry hands regularly.
"I appreciate people will be concerned that a local state of emergency was called, the dangers predicted did not materialise, and people were caused inconvenience.
“For me, it comes down to the evidence and analysis. Yesterday the forecast was the south coast could be hit as hard again. And now the forecast has changed, so we’ve adjusted the response accordingly.
“Back in 2020 there were huge swells onto our south coast. Roads were ripped up. Cars and property were damaged. People had to be evacuated in the middle of the event. The message evacuated communities sent was needed to be more proactive in the future.
Little said there would always be a review process after any state of emergency declaration.
“To the Southern and Eastern communities, to all the emergency responders, and to everyone who has been affected: you braved the disruption and uncertainty to keep yourselves, your families and each other safe. You showed us all again why Wellington is the best in the world at dealing with wild weather. Thank you."
Residents in exposed coastal areas of Wellington’s south coast and parts of coastal Wairarapa were earelier told to prepare for hazardous conditions, with evacuations ordered in some suburbs last night.
Little told Breakfast around 350 houses were “at risk or potentially at risk” of inundation due to the swell.
“The last big surge we had was in 2020, it got up to about 5.5m. Today’s swell is predicted to be between 8m and 9m, so this will be a big deal.”
He urged people to follow the advice of Civil Defence, and “let nature take its course and see what happens”.
Light plane tipped by high winds
At Wellington Airport, high winds saw a light plane tip, before another gust righted it.
Golden Bay Air chief executive Richard Molloy said it was one of his company's planes. No-one was on board, and it wouldn’t return to service until an engineer had checked it out.
"We’ve cancelled that flight and FENZ have secured the aircraft down for engineers to check over, at the moment it just looks lightly scratched and doesn’t appear massively damaged," he told 1News.
"The aircraft being empty put it at greater risk of this happening, had people been onboard it would have been far less likely - this has never happened before."
Passengers would fly to Nelson on Air NZ and then be driven to Takaka.
Road closures
Wellington City Council said from 9am, no vehicles would be allowed into areas included in the evacuation order.
"This includes emergency services vehicles. This is to prepare for the first dangerous swell window between 10am and 1pm, which will coincide with high tide," it said online.
"Significant disruption is expected. Some routes will not be accessible. Detours and shortened routes are in place.
"Road closures are in place between Tirangi Road in Lyall Bay and the Pass of Branda in Seatoun and between Sutherland Road in Lyall Bay and Red Rocks."
Cape Palliser Rd in the Wairarapa was closed at the Hurupi Stream bridge and was likely to remain so for the next 24 hours.
New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi said the Ngauranga to Petone shared path has reopened, but said users should take care.
Watches and warnings in place
Strong Wind Watch
Gisborne/Tairāwhiti and Hawke's Bay coasts (Tolaga Bay to Māhia Peninsula) – seven hours from 12pm to 7pm today.
Chatham Islands – six hours from 2pm to 8pm today.
Heavy Swell Warning - orange
Wairarapa coast (Turakirae Head to Mataikona) – 33 hours from 12am Monday to 9am Wednesday.
Wellington coast (Cape Terawhiti to Turakirae Head) – 30 hours from 3am today to 9am Wednesday.
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