Gale force winds woke many Aucklanders earlier today and have been blowing umbrellas inside out all morning as a large area of low pressure finally moves across central New Zealand.

Winds have been recorded up to 114km/h on the hills west of Auckland Airport with gusts to 90km/h across Auckland city and parts of Northland in the past hour.

The strong warm nor’westers have also affected Bay of Plenty and Gisborne with gusts to 65km/h helping push the temperatures up to 18 degrees already in Gisborne and further south in Hastings.

Meanwhile cold southerlies on the opposite side of the low have chilled conditions in the South Island.  It’s currently only 9 degrees in Christchurch and Timaru, 8 in Invercargill and only 6 in Queenstown.