Boysenberries will be wiped from the Christmas menu for most New Zealand homes after a hailstorm ripped through the nation's largest orchard in the Nelson region. The storm that tore across the Motueka district, the Waimea Plains and its foothills yesterday was a double whammy for some orchardists who suffered similar crop devastation little more than a year ago. The Met Service has also issued a severe thunderstorm warning for Nelson and says there might be more damaging hail on the way. It covers the Nelson district, Motueka and Golden Bay. "A few of the thunderstorms may be severe with large damaging hail and/or significant accumulations of moderate size hail," it says. "This hail could cause significant damage to crops, orchards, vines, glasshouses and vehicles, as well as make driving conditions hazardous." The warning comes on the heels of a Wednesday storm that pelted much of the Waimea Plains, Ruby Bay  and parts of the Motueka district with large hailstones, severely damaging fruit and berry crops. The storms will likely remove fresh boysenberries from the Christmas menu for most New Zealand homes, with the largest national grower, Tasman Bay Berries, in the centre of the storm. There were reports from around the district of hailstones as big as 50 cent pieces - and the MetService said more could be on the way. Tasman Bay Berries, which produced 700 tonnes of mainly boysenberries from the Waimea Plains last year, was hard-hit. Owner Glen Holland said on first assessment the fruit could still be harvested for processing but picking for punnets and the supermarket trade "will be all over, I imagine". "That's a real shame because it's the week leading up to Christmas where we pick most for the local market." Pick-your-own would probably still go ahead because people could "pick around" the damaged fruit, Holland said. Meteorologist Peter Little said there was a risk of severe thunderstorms around Nelson on Thursday afternoon that could produce large hail to damage crops, vines and orchards. "It looks like a repeat of yesterday in terms of the risk." The punishing loss comes less than 13 months after two hailstorms pelted the Motueka district in three weeks, causing the worst damage growers could recall and reducing the region's export apple crop by an estimated 10 per cent. Today orchardists and growers were still assessing the damage. The early signs were that most of Riwaka, which bore the brunt of last year's hailstorms, escaped. But some growers have been unlucky twice. "We won the prize last year as well," said Riwaka's Jared Fry. The storm, which began before 6pm, tore through crops across Tasman, Mariri, Lower Moutere, Moutere, Motueka, parts of Riwaka and the Waimea Plains including Hope. Fry said the family's Peach Island kiwifruit crop was  slaughtered. "It smacked the apples as well. "It was widespread and severe, very severe. "We are insured, and I think a lot of growers picked up insurance after last year's storm." Damaged fruit would be picked for juice, he said. David Easton drove away from his devastated Mariri orchards last night after seeing the gaping holes and ripped leaves left  by the large jagged hail. His Waimea orchards appeared to have suffered less damage. Easton said he had stood his thinning crews down until the damage could be assessed. Lower Moutere grower Ian Palmer said the  ground under his trees had been white with hail. He predicted the damage to crops and the local economy would be worse than last year. "This is much more widespread. Most of us around here will be in pretty bad shape, but it'll be Monday before we can really assess the damage." While a lot more growers had taken insurance he suggested many had not. Riwaka grower Paul Heywood, who chairs the region's Labour Governance Group that coordinates the region's Recognised Seasonal Employer scheme, said RSE workers would still be required on hail-damaged orchards to pick for juice,  unless the crop had been written off by insurers. The growers had all experienced this sort of event at some stage, and would survive. "The important thing is we live with this and growers do have the ability to work their way through. "It doesn't make the financial experience a lot easier, but psychologically  we can cope." The eastern Waimea Plains got off lightly last year, but Wai-West Horticulture head Nick Patterson said parts of his company's extensive orchards had never been as badly damaged as yesterday and he expected some areas would be "a write-off". "I think it's taken out quite a big chunk of the plains, from Brightwater to Lower Queen St potentially, and all that ground along the foothills to half-way across." Last year's November 4 hailstorm was described as "the worst in living memory" and affected around 40 growers. A second storm three weeks later was not as severe, but hit other growers. Source - http://www.stuff.co.nz