Two Auckland houses had a "lucky'' escape last night after a 20-metre Pohutukawa tree split in half and part of it fell between two homes.
Mt Wellington Fire Station rank senior officer Stuart Millar said his station was called to Cleary St, Panmure, shortly after midnight.
"A large section of the tree had split away from the trunk. A section probably about 20 metres long, a big pohutukawa tree, had fallen down and flattened a fence line, punched a hole in the roof of a garage and just caused some minor damage to the end of the house.''
He said the trunk tore some guttering and passed the side of one house.
"It just missed the house, it basically fell between two houses.''
"They were very lucky...If it had leaned five metres one way or the other it would have taken off the end of the house.''
He said the residents were a bit shocked at the accident in the middle of the night at first, but had an inkling the tree would crack.
"I think they knew it was going to happen because the day before the tree had started falling down, and then it just tumbled down the rest of the way last night.''
He said the remaining half of the tree was still standing 20 metres high, and the bad section of the tree was due to be chopped by an arborist today.
He said strong rain and winds yesterday could have weakened the Pohutukawa.
The station was called out to fallen trees about once every month, and were often called out during storms he said.
Mr Millar said the station had been busy overnight with the wild weather.
