West Auckland residents have been awoken by a loud boom on Thursday morning, which resulted in significant power outages.
Several Facebook pages have been alight with comments, with people saying they were woken up at about 4:45am after hearing the loud bang.
One person described the sound as "world ending" while another said it was so loud it shook their house.
Footage sent to Newshub from the Auckland suburb of Avondale shows a flash of lightning and a huge lightning bolt followed by a huge rumble of thunder.
Fire and Emergency New Zealand (FENZ) told Newshub they received reports of an "explosion" sound around the suburb of Blockhouse Bay around 4:40am.
FENZ said they responded to the reports with one truck, that was sent to investigate.
When FENZ arrived, power was out on "several streets", a FENZ spokesperson said.
"We think it was caused by an electrical storm - lightning in the area."
MetService told Newshub there was a "short-lived" thunderstorm at around 4:45am on Thursday morning.
MetService couldn't confirm if the lightning caused the power outages as they detected it as "cloud to cloud" not "cloud to ground" lightning
Residents in both Blockhouse Bay and New Lynn have reported power outages - although the exact number impacted remains unclear.
According to Vector's website, a pocket of Auckland's west including the suburbs of Waitakere, Bethells Beach, Swanson, Taupaki, Blockhouse Bay and Manukau are listed to be without power currently.
Vector told Newshub its crews are responding to two power outages affecting parts of west Auckland, including Avondale and Swanson caused by a period of lightning and stormy conditions on Thursday morning.
"We’ve been able to restore power for most homes, with only small pockets still remaining off," a Vector spokesperson said.
"We can assure those customers still without power we’re working as quickly and safely as we can to get the power back on. The best way to keep up to date with updates on restoration progress is to register your address at our outage centre at vetor.co.nz/outages"
