Council-planned New Year's events in both Palmerston North and Tauranga have been canned as a bout of strong winds and heavy rain hits central parts of New Zealand.
The weather has caused flights to be cancelled at Nelson Airport and some Cook Strait ferry sailings are experiencing delays, and State Highway 6 is closed between Rai Valley and Hira, at the top of the South Island.
Thousands of people are without power in the Horowhenua area of the North Island, and large parts of the Tasman district lost power for hours as well.
Almost all of Tasman's outages were resolved by about 3pm but Hira, Atawhai and Cable Bay remained cut off.
A number of areas in Marlborough are also offline. Marlborough Lines Ltd says that includes properties between Pelorus Bridge and Rai Valley.
Horowhenua Mayor Bernie Wandan earlier said strong winds had brought down a number of trees and damaged sheds, and left about 7000 properties without electricity.
Crews were working to restore power, he said.
At least 18 flights in and out of Nelson Airport have been cancelled amid strong winds. Air New Zealand connections with Christchurch and Auckland were among those affected.
Meanwhile, Bluebridge Cook Strait ferries said that "very strong winds are impacting operations in Picton and Wellington today and sailings will be delayed throughout the day".
"Our teams will be in touch with customers travelling on today's sailings to provide updated check-in and departure times."
Interislander also warned of potential delays. "Slightly larger than usual swells are forecast in Cook Strait on Tuesday 30th December and some sailings may experience delays."
In an update this morning, MetService said heavy rain and southeast gales were set to hit central New Zealand.
"An active low-pressure system is moving southwards over northern and central New Zealand today and tomorrow, bringing a period of heavy rain and gale east to southeast winds to some regions."
MetService has issued heavy rain watches for the Tararua District and Wairarapa in the North Island, and the Kaikoura coast, and the Richmond and Bryant ranges in the South Island,
A strong wind watch is in place for Wellington until 4pm today.
Earlier, Electra was reporting power cuts on the Kapiti Coast affecting Paekakariki, Foxton and Shannon this morning.
On the South Island's West Coast, Buller Electricity Ltd said the power was off to Karamea, Little Wanganui and Karamea Bluff.
In Tauranga, the city council has cancelled all five of its community New Year's Eve events because of the bad weather forecast.
The council said weather reports indicated heavy rain and strong winds during event set-up, with conditions highly likely to continue into Wednesday.
It said fireworks displays would hopefully still take place from various locations around the city on New Year's Eve.
The Palmerston North City Council has cancelled its New Year's Eve event in The Square due to forecast severe winds.
It said the cancellation included all entertainment and both fireworks displays.
"We are really sorry to have to make this call, especially knowing how many people were looking forward to celebrating together."
Clean-up continues
In the parts of the South Island, strong winds brought down trees overnight.
Fire and Emergency New Zealand said State Highway 7 over the Rahu Saddle, between Reefton and Springs Junction, was affected.
State Highway 6 also had trees coming down, particularly through the Whangamoa Hills between Nelson and Blenheim.
Firefighters were still being called out into the evening across the North Island, taking the total number of weather-related jobs to about 140 in Auckland, Northland, Waikato and the Bay of Plenty.
PowerCo said hundreds of properties remain without power north of Whanganui, and around Palmerston North and Feilding.
Campground holidays disrupted
Campground managers in the North Island are hoping for sunnier weather leading up to New Year's after a lashing of wind and rain.
Wild weather battered much of the North Island on Monday, disrupting campers, causing power outages and downing trees.
In Auckland a roof was torn off an unoccupied home in Hillsborough, as fire crews responded to more than 100 weather-related callouts.
The manager of Kūaotunu Campground on the Coromandel Peninsula, Yvette Davey, said the weather had caused a bit of disruption on Monday.
"We have had a couple of campers that their tents were destroyed so they had to go home, other than that people are hunkering down, it's settled down here," she said.
Leanne Mills, the owner of Long Bay Motor Camp in Coromandel said campers were not too put off by the wet weather.
"We've had a bit of rain [on Monday] but we've been lucky campers have just used it as a crash day, just chill out, read a book, sleep," she said.
"We've just got continued support from our regulars, mostly 90 percent Kiwis, so they'll come and just meet up every year with the same people year after year and they don't really care if it rains."
Festivalgoers for New Year's events such as Rhythm and Vines in Gisborne have been warned to watch out for wild weather on the roads.
