Wild weather across the Auckland region overnight has caused a yacht to become beached on some rocks at Matiatia, Waiheke Island.
Melanie Nutbeam told 1News she came across the damaged boat while on a hike around 8am on Wednesday morning.
The Kiwi who is visiting the island from Hong Kong, where she's lived for 38 years, explained the moment she found the stranded vessel.
"I'm a keen hiker so I did a walk around the coast from Church Bay to Matiatia and that's when I saw the shipwreck," she said, adding that it came after a gusty night.
"It was quite noisy, in the end I had to put earplugs in so that I could get a good night sleep."
Nutbeam said the coastguard was around assessing the damage on Wednesday, with someone else aboard.
She didn't know the owner but said the boat looked well-used, with solar panels up and a stand-up paddleboard stowed on top.
"It did look as though it was a boat used reasonably regularly."
Coastguard senior communications adviser Ben Parsons confirmed to 1News they were told of the shipwrecked yacht on Wednesday morning.
"However, as no-one was on board, it was reported to the Harbour Master who we understand has attended to the vessel during the day. As such, our volunteers haven’t been involved," he said.
MetService weather forecaster Paul Ngamanu told 1News the worst of the wet and windy weather took place between 4am to 6am.
High tide was shortly before 5.30am which coupled could have disrupted the boats.
Ngamanu sad there was heavy rain over the Auckland region overnight, and that "the winds got up, around 4 o'clock in the morning it got quite windy".
There were gusts up to 100km/h in some exposed areas, including Tiritiri Matangi lighthouse which is situated on Tiritiri Island in the Hauraki Gulf.
"There was quite a strong North-East blowing... I would day it was a pretty miserable night"
Ngamanu's information came from various weather stations around Auckland though as there are no stations on Waiheke Island, but he said it would be similar.
Despite the disruptive night, Nutbeam said she was enjoying her stay.
She had been on the island since a few days before the latest lockdown, after being released from MIQ on August 10.
"I was looking after someone's house and ended up staying longer than I thought," she said.
Unluckily, Nutbeam thought she was escaping the worst of Covid-19 by coming to New Zealand for "a more relaxed environment", and she also happened to be visiting the country for the first lockdown in 2020 too.
But it's not the worst place in the world to lockdown.
"The whole island is stunning. My time here has reminded me of how absolutely beautiful Waiheke is and how friendly people are here and how hopeful we can be about the environment because there are people doing so many good things here," she said.
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