Wild weather's beginning to move up the country, bringing strong winds and heavy rain

There's orange weather warnings for the top half of the South Island and Wellington,Wairarapa and Taranaki.

Canterbury is under a red strong wind warning until 3pm, with MetService recording a strong gust of 224 kilometres per hour at Mount Hutt overnight.

Hundreds are still without power in South Canterbury, with lines crews out trying to fix power lines.

Transport Agency contractors are also out clearing highways of blown debris and fallen trees.