Power has been restored to all Kingsland properties that suffered an outage early this afternoon.
Electricity was cut to the Auckland suburb's main street as businesses prepared for a huge influx of fans attending the Rugby World Cup final at Eden Park and those keen to be close to the action.
Vector blamed a transformer fault, and said the outage affected 20 Vector customers from 464 _ 498 New North Rd.
Five large diesel generators were delivered to New North Rd in an attempt to restore power to bars and restaurants before kickoff at 9pm.
The transportation of the generators by police escort into Kingsland was hampered by heavy traffic and huge crowds.
Vector spokeswoman Sandy Hodge said power was restored to most affected customers at 6.15pm. The remaining four had their power restored at 7.30pm. Extra power was required for the chillers at one of the premises and this was in place at 8.20pm.
ends
The Kingslander, one of Auckland's best known rugby-viewing venues, was affected by the power cut and manager Sarah Emery earlier predicted it would mean loss of income, "big time''.
"You've got to make hay while the sun shines and this is our big day to make some income. After that we go through our summer period and get quieter. Also we've been working for so long to get to this point and we've already been through a couple of power cuts before this. It also puts a whole heap of added stress on us, and our customers don't enjoy the experience.
"This is the ultimate sports venue, and we're so close to Eden Park and if you haven't got a ticket this is the place to watch the game and now it's all going down the toilet.''
Vishal Kumar, manager of Arthur Avenue restaurant said they were "really suffering''.
"Nothing is working, nothing is working in the kitchen as well. This is the big day for us, it's crazy.''
Maurice Packwood, a chef who has a street food stall on New North Rd, had to make an improvised oven out of a barbeque to continue selling his roast beef rolls.
"It's quite comical in a way because it had to happen on the day of the biggest event of the year. It happened during a Bledisloe Cup match, too, and nothing was done about it then so they've known about this for six months. Of all days, you know. But we'll get by, we have to.''
Stephanie Connor, owner of Toro Bar and El Camino Mexi Bar and Cafe, said the power outage was "soul destroying''.
"The beers are starting to warm up, bucketloads of food had to be thrown out, the chefs stood around for three hours smoking cigarettes.
"We thought it was going to be the biggest day of the whole tournament, basically, it's probably the biggest day for us in the last four years. This just shouldn't happen. I mean things do happen, but we've had it before.
"As long as they get it [power] back on we'll be able to get our happy faces back on but certainly it's not what we wanted, especially today.''
Paul Barrett, who was in Cardiff when the All Blacks were knocked out of the last Rugby World Cup by the French, said the power outage did not matter because the beer was still cold _ for the time being at least.
"What do we need power here for? This is great: sunshine, cold beer and good company. Richie McCaw's powering the nation at the moment anyway.''
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