An electricity outage on the Otago Peninsula is taking longer than expected to resolve.
The unplanned outage affecting hundreds of customers from about 5.30am was caused by vegetation making contact with power lines, Aurora Energy said on its website.
Areas listed as affected were Portobello, Ōtākou, Cape Saunders, Harington Point, Harwood and Okia Flat.
Outram has also been added to the list of areas without electricity this evening.
An outage there kicked in at 8pm and Aurora said a response crew was investigating.
About 380 customers are affected.
Aurora's website included a note about staying safe in strong winds, as they could bring down trees or cause objects to fly into power lines.
"If it’s windy, keep up to date with weather warnings and secure large objects like trampolines and outdoor furniture."
After earlier giving times of noon, 2pm and then 4pm, Aurora's website said midway through the afternoon the expected restoration time was now 8.30pm. It said several hundred consumers remained affected.
An expected restoration time of 11pm is currently being given for the Outram outage.
Speaking this afternoon, a Fire and Emergency New Zealand (Fenz) spokeswoman said the number of weather-related calls to them had quietened down since this morning.
"Dunedin's still getting the odd call of tiles lifting, so it obviously is still windy, but we're not getting a rash of calls," she said.
"But we were certainly busy this morning in the Invercargill and Dunedin areas."
There were also a couple of reports from this morning of fallen trees needing to be cleared from roads in the Clutha area, she said.
Further afield, power supply has been interrupted to several other parts of the South.
The PowerNet website shows a raft of outages in parts of inland Otago, South Otago and southern parts of Southland including Invercargill.
Invercargill Mayor Nobby Clark said he had seen crews restoring electricity in parts of the city this morning.
"The winds are definitely strong," he said.
"I've been out and about this morning into the central part of the city and you can see trees with large branches snapped off and some road signs tipped over . . . nothing too major, as far as I'm aware."
It comes after MetService issued a warning about strong winds in the lower South Island between 9am and 3pm today.
Severe gale southwesterlies gusting to 120kmh in exposed places, mainly towards the coast, were forecast.
The wind warning covered Dunedin, Clutha, Southland, Stewart Island and southern Fiordland.
By mid-morning MetService said winds were gradually easing.
"Driving may be difficult, especially for high-sided vehicles and motorcycles."
The severe weather prompted multiple callouts by fire crews around the lower South Island, including for fallen trees and roofs lifting off houses, and Stuff reports a Dunedin-bound flight from Auckland had to return to the city of sails after being unable to land at its destination.
Fenz earlier said they had received 10 callouts in Invercargill since 2am on Saturday, and a few in Dunedin since 5am.
- additional reporting RNZ
