Man captures storm photo in New Zealand with $80 phone

Using only a second-hand $80 phone a man has captured a series of stunning photos of a storm hitting the North Island of New Zealand’s east coast. 

Simon Taunt was about to go for a run along the normal route in Bay View, Napier, when he saw the dark clouds roll in. 

He hadn’t seen anything like it before, so after grabbing his nine-year-old niece, the pair headed to a higher ground to watch the beauty unfold. 

‘It looked like a demon about to take over Napier. That would be the best way to describe it. It looked like something off Lord of the Rings,’ he told Stuff.

After spotting the clouds coming in he grabbed his niece and headed up a hill to get a decent view of the unfolding storm 

Using a Meizu M3s cellphone which he bought secondhand off a mate for $80 he decided to snap a few pictures to remember the moment. 

‘You could see it had taken over Hastings, and was moving pretty fast. Then we started thinking we better get home before it hits us. We got caught out, and started sprinting home, but luckily the mate that I live with knew we’d run that way and he’d driven out towards us and took us home,’ Mr Taunt said.   

‘My niece loved it. Even when the lightening was hitting in the distance. I thought she’d get a bit nervous, but she was jumping up and down loving it.’ 

Simon Taunt (pictured) took the images of a storm rolling in off New Zealand’s east coast

Mr Taunt told Daily Mail Australia his niece is ‘as tough as nails’ and could handle the magic weather.   

The thunderstorm came in Tuesday afternoon, with a dark cloud and lightning on the cities of Napier and Hastings before thunder and lightning swept over the Heretaunga Plains from 1:30pm.

Heavy rain fell on the two cities for about 20 minutes raising surface flooding in some areas.