Fire and Emergency NZ is asking the public to stay away from the Port Hills fire area.

District Commander Dave Stackhouse said “we’ve had a really good afternoon and made good progress on the fire today.

“Firefighters have been really working hard in some trying conditions.

“We’ve been trying to allow limited access to residents – mindful that we’ve got the weekend coming up.

Summit Road property owners were allowed limited access their properties today.

“It’s still an active fire ground so I’m really asking everyone to be mindful of that.”

Residents have been advised to have a “grab bag” and be prepared for evacuation if things change.

“We’ve got a really good window for firefighting through to Sunday and after that we expect some high winds so that window has allowed us to really put a lot of firefighting effort into the next two days.

In order to optimiae firefighting efforts, Stackhouse appealed to the public to refrain from recreational activities in the vicinity of the fire.

“ I asked the general public to stay away and don’t use recreational access near the area and allow us to do our job and that will be really helpful.