An "unsatisfactory" game of golf probably helped an Arthurs Point man escape injury when a 60-year-old oak tree fell on to his parked car in high wind, and cut power to almost 300 residents.
McChesney Rd home owner John Newton said he was "quite fortunate" he returned home early and was not in his Honda CR-V, or getting out of it, when the tree fell about 1.30pm yesterday.
"We weren't enjoying our golf too much this morning, so we came home early. Otherwise, we'd be getting out of the car when it [the tree] came down."
Mr Newton said he was inside, talking on the telephone, when the line went dead.
"I didn't know what happened. I didn't hear anything from the tree. I was told by a resident of the house and couldn't believe it, really."
Queenstown police and firefighters cordoned off the road until Delta technicians turned off the power.
The fallen tree disrupted supply to 291 customers, Delta said later yesterday.
Representatives from the council, Delta and arborists from Tricky Trees arrived about 2pm.
The arborists helped Mr Newton retrieve his vehicle.
"Just a few scratches - we got away light there," he said.
Constable Phil Hamlin, of Queenstown, said criminal charges would not be laid.
"It's one of those freakish things."
The incident at Arthurs Pt happened almost on the deadline when contractors were to register their interest in receiving tender documents for the "felling, removal and clean-up" of about 72 poplar trees on the side of Lower Shotover Rd.
One of the trees fell in high wind and killed farmer Russell Liggett on September 14.
Council network operations engineer Ian Marshall said yesterday 15 to 20 contractors had expressed interest and more were expected on Monday morning.
"We'll have a tender document out to them [this week], then close that in the second week of January, then award it straight away. We'll have the trees down by the end of January."
Mr Marshall said the council was prepared to close the part of Lower Shotover Rd where the trees were yesterday, but the high wind had died down.
Central Otago and the Queenstown Lakes District were affected by power outages caused by strong wind yesterday, Delta said.
The outages occurred in Ophir, Ida Valley, Poolburn, Roxburgh, Coal Creek, Millers Flat, Raes Junction, Bannockburn, Ripponvale, Lowburn, Lower Shotover, Ladies Mile, Lake Hayes Estate, and Glenorchy, affecting thousands of consumers.
"Most of these faults are being worked on now and only small areas will be without power for any length of time, although the Glenorchy area may take longer, due to staff at present working on faults in the Frankton and Dalefield areas," Delta system control manager Graeme Johnson said.
Cherry nets were torn and fruit pickers struggled to keep their balance as strong wind gusts ripped through Central Otago orchards yesterday, but most of the ripening crops stayed on trees.
Orchardists said the conditions were unpleasant for cherry pickers and some early peaches were blown off trees but it was too early for the wind to affect many apricots.
Stonefruit grower Dave Cooke, of The Fruit Garden orchard at Roxburgh, estimated wind gusted up to 120-130kmh at times.
"If it had been three weeks later, we'd have lost tonnes of apricots, but it was still early enough for it not to cause too much damage, apart from ripping the cherry nets."
He was harvesting Dawson cherries and said the strong wind meant pickers had struggled to remain upright on ladders and had to shift to more sheltered parts of the orchard.
His orchard had been irrigated on Thursday night but yesterday's conditions had "sucked the moisture out of the ground".
Cherry grower Alex Huffadine, of Cromwell, said it was amazing how summerfruit, especially cherries, remained anchored on the trees.
"Don't forget, we bring in helicopters to dry off the cherries after it's rained and the fruit survives the wind thrown up from the helicopters, too, which is quite substantial.
"Apricots are pretty robust, too, although the wind can mark the fruit a bit, " he said.
Strong wind ripped up Lake Wanaka yesterday.
The wind speed, as recorded at Wanaka Airport, was 21kmh but gale-force conditions have been experienced throughout the week in exposed places, such as Rabbit Pass, in the east Matukituki Valley, and two Wanaka trampers had to call for help there on Thursday night.
Wanaka police had not received any reports of wind-related damage or traffic problems, Snr Const Ian Henderson said.
The New Zealand Transport Agency issued cautions yesterday for motorists travelling on inland routes in the South Island.
