The lack of windy weather yesterday took many in Mid Canterbury by surprise.

Despite the day’s forecast warning the whole region to brace for strong winds, no major fires, crashes or casualties had been reported in Mid Canterbury by the time of publishing.

Only five FENZ callouts were reported by 4pm on Thursday.

Three of these callouts were for minor issues, one for a natural incident and one for a vegetation fire.

A FENZ representative said the fire, which occurred in Mitcham, was caused by a tree falling onto a powerline - not uncommon during events, like these, they said.

Firefighters attended but the problem was able to be resolved by the power company.

Methven Station chief fire officer Brent Anderson said local callouts had consisted of a fallen tree on the road, and a flying trampoline.

“For an hour [yesterday] morning, there were really, really strong winds, and then it just settled down,” he said.

“We haven’t heard of any major damage.”

The Methven crew assisted with a small grassfire caused by a powerline in Mt Somers, he said, and were alerted to a tree fire in the Rakaia rugby grounds which was resolved without their truck.

Police media found no records of any road incidents between Rakaia and Rangitata at the time of publishing.

The Methven water treatment plant was down for several hours due to electrical issues, believed to have been caused by a lighting strike.

A water tanker was bought in to temporarily supply water for drinking, cooking, flushing toilets and quick showers. It was to stay there until Friday morning.

For farmers in Mid Canterbury’s high country, it was just another day.

“We actually got off really lightly,” Mt Somers farmer Duncan Humm said.

“The wind’s nowhere near as strong as what it was forecast to be, and we have had a nice wee shower of rain.”

A few branches had fallen around his property, but his deer were coping with the wind as they would on any other day, he said.

“I did see EA Networks up here, someone must be without power somewhere.”

Fellow high country farmer David Acland had a power outage caused by fallen branches in the morning, but that had been quickly resolved.

“I don’t think we’ve had anything unusual for Mt Somers,” he said.

“The wind’s picked up here again but nothing extreme - not in the Mid Canterbury sense of the word.”

His animals were quite happy to hunker down, “chew their cud, and wait” out the wind.

“It was quite bad further north - Culverdeen have had a few shakeups and blowups up there.”

The North Canterbury town bore the brunt of the wind’s force, with videos of ripped out powerpole lines and topsoil dust storms making the rounds online.

The Ashburton District Council had set up its emergency operations centre to brace for the bad weather.

"The Emergency Operations Centre was used for monitoring purposes throughout the day but fortunately did not require a full activation," Ashburton Mayor Liz McMillan said.

"...There are no current closures in place. However, we'd encourage those traveling out of the district to check NZTA's website for State Highway information for before hitting the road."

While the weather is expected to die down over the weekend, the public is encouraged to keep updated on conditions and to be wary for condition changes over the labour weekend.

The New Zealand Mountain Safety Council warns that this might be a messy start to the tramping season.

“Labour Weekend is traditionally the start of the summer tramping season and many people will have been planning their trips for months,” chief executive Mike Daisley said.

“The extreme conditions we’ve seen this week are a timely reminder for outdoor enthusiasts, like hikers, trampers and hunters, to make the weather a key consideration in their preparation.

“... Always be prepared to postpone or change your plans,” he said. “The best decision is the one that gets you home safe.”

By Anisha Satya