The North Island has seen a wild night of weather with gale-force winds, heavy rain, lightning, snow and hail lashing large parts of the island.
Waka Kotahi New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) confirmed State Highway 1 between Rangipo to Waiouru (Desert Road) and SH46 between Rangipo and Tongariro has reopened after being closed earlier on Thursday because of snow.
The wild weather also made its way down to Wellington on Thursday morning with hail lashing the Capital.
A Newshub reporter in Wellington described the hail as being the "size of M&Ms".
MetService said there were over 12,000 lightning strikes across New Zealand in the 24 hours to 8am on Thursday and warns there is more to come for the North Island, especially in the west of the island.
Meanwhile, the wild weather in Auckland all started at about 8:45pm on Wednesday in Auckland when thunderstrikes were seen in the super city that was accompanied by heavy hail.
Auckland was dazzled by hundreds of lightning strikes overnight, including a direct hit to the Sky Tower.
MetService told Newshub four distinctive bands crossed over Auckland overnight, bringing thunderstorms and heavy rain.
The first band hit Auckland at 8pm, the second at 9pm, the third at 1am and the fourth at 2:30am.
MetService said very heavy rain didn't hit Auckland as these were moving quickly through the region.
Most of the rain recorded was 6mm/h - meaning it just met the threshold for heavy rain.
Another weaker band passed over Auckland at 4:30am on Thursday morning and there are moderate risks of thunderstorms for the rest of the day in the upper North Island and Taranaki.
MetService also confirmed to Newshub between 10pm on Wednesday and 4am on Thursday, there were 750 lightning strikes recorded across land in New Zealand - with 720 of those in North Island and 180 of them in Auckland and 240 in the Waikato.
Fire and Emergency New Zealand told Newshub crews had a reasonably quiet night with just four callouts in Auckland.
These were for two trees coming down, a roof lifting of a building from the wind and flooding.
There were also two callouts in Bay of Plenty for trees coming down.
Weather warnings and watches
A road snowfall warnings is in place on New Zealand's major alpine passes.
The warnings are for Desert Road (SH1), Lewis Pass (SH7), Porters Pass (SH73), Lindis Pass (SH8), Crown Range Rd and Milford Rd (SH94).
All the warnings are in place until various times on Thursday morning.
The heavy snow watch for the Mackenzie Country and Northern hills of Southland north to the Waitaki River, excluding the lower-lying parts of North Otago, Dunedin and Clutha was lifted by MetService on Thursday morning.
The forecaster said the threat of snowfall amounts reaching warning criteria has passed.
