Watch: Violent storm sweeps through the centre of NZ

2:14 am today

A violent storm has swept through the centre of the country, knocking out power to thousands of homes.

People living from Stoke to Takaka lost electricity just before 9pm on Thursday, as lightning bolts lit up the sky.

Lines company Network Tasman said power was gradually being restored, with its website showing no unplanned outages remaining by 1am.

Transpower earlier said it was working with Network Tasman and had crews on-site investigating the problem.

RNZ listener Liz Davidson said the storm was "quite dramatic" in Blenheim.

"We've had sheet lightning and in between the sky's sort of been grumbling - really, really grumbling - and the sheet lightning's quite dramatic because we don't get thunderstorms like this, I mean, I've seen thunderstorms in places like Thailand but not here. It's really amazing."

Davidson said she was preparing for more rain by putting towels around windows which might leak.

Meanwhile, lightning also lit up the skies above Wellington in the hours around midnight, accompanied by intense downpours.

A video shot in the suburb of Karori showed multiple sheets of lightning flash within the space of a minute.

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