Extra emergency services had to be called in to deal with the number of calls and damage caused by extremely high winds in the Central Otago area.
Fire and Emergency New Zealand says it's had callouts since early on Friday morning of roofs being lifted off houses and windows being blown in.
"The call was made [that] nobody would climb on roofs, we just did what we could to secure loose property," Senior fire-fighter Clayton Andrews said.
"We certainly weren't expecting winds like this, this morning."
MetService says strong northerly winds of up to 110km/h were recorded in the area on Friday morning.
"This is the biggest wind storm I've seen here, it came through this morning and absolutely blasting," Central Otago District Council Mayor Tim Cadogan says.
"Clyde can sit in a [wind] funnel coming down the Cromwell gorge and that seems to be the effect today.
"[On the] Queenstown side of the Clyde Dam there was virtually no wind and yet down here it is a little bit hard to stand up."
Police are urging drivers in Central Otago and south Canterbury to take care due to the high winds.
No injuries have been reported.
Newshub.
