Thousands of people are currently without power in the central North Island, possibly linked to adverse weather.

A Transpower spokesperson says a lightning strike on their network possibly caused a power outage to most of Hawke’s Bay, though they were working to find out if this was related to the other outages.

Outages have been reported in Hawke’s Bay, Gisborne, Taupō, Napier and Hastings.

Line provider Unison’s website for listing power outages is currently down due to web traffic.

A Transpower spokesperson said the 220 kilovolt lines that feed the Hawke’s Bay area are offline right now, and Transpower was looking into ways to put them back on.

They believed the outage affected most of the Hawke’s Bay region, and they were looking into where else could be affected.

In Napier, staff from fast food restaurants have put up road cones closing off their drive-thru facilities.

Shops, cafes and restaurants are closed across Hawke’s Bay.

Restoration depends on the options available, and they would be working with Unison in finding a solution, they said.

They said there was uncertainty about how the issue would be solved at this stage, and a timeline for a power return was currently unavailable.