Alesha Plew captured this incredible footage of a tornado as she and her husband were driving along State Highway 1 north of Ashburton, New Zealand.

Tornado stuns motorists, tips farming equipment in Canterbury, New Zealand

PerthNow

A TORNADO has flipped farming equipment and stunned locals in New Zealand after sweeping through a region of the country’s South Island on Sunday afternoon.

The weather event, which is rare for the area, reportedly touched down on a paddock in Canterbury.

Alesha Plew shared vision she captured while travelling along State Highway 1 just before 4pm.

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“My husband looked up and just said… ‘what is that?’ It was just a massive tornado, a big brown twister,” she told the New Zealand Herald.

The pair passed on the chance to stop and join other motorists who had pulled over for a better look.

“We kind of kept driving straight past it – it was a couple of fields away from us at the time,” she said.

“It ended up coming about 10m from the car, and there was debris and dirt flying around.”

Lily Tworogal was travelling to Christchurch with family when she spotted the tornado.

“First it was a swirl of dust and then just grew bigger and bigger,” she told 1 NEWS.

A severe thunderstorm warning had earlier been issued for the area.

A farmer reported the tornado tipped two irrigators and moved a mower after blowing across his property before it broke up.