Wet weather tipped to linger

Long queues formed on major roads leading to the big cities as holiday-makers returned home from their Easter break. Photo / Christine Cornege

Yesterday's wet, windy and dreary weather is expected to last for the next 10 days for most of the North Island.

But the South Island is expected to escape with fairly dry and sunny days, forecasters have predicted.

Weather Watch chief analyst Philip Duncan says low after low will be formed in the north Tasman Sea and Coral Sea areas. This combined with high pressure to the east and south of the North Island means long periods of heavy rain are extremely likely.

"The set-up over the next 10 days also puts Taranaki and other central western areas of the country in the squash zone between low and high pressure - in other words, where the isobars will bunch up bringing strong winds at times from the easterly quarter," Mr Duncan said.

Despite a brief cold snap in the South Island yesterday, Mr Duncan said most of New Zealand would have temperatures above average, particularly at night, in the coming week.

Flood warnings were in place last night for Easter weekend travellers who were caught in heavy downpours across the North Island.

Last night, MetService warned motorists to drive with care as a front moved over the lower North Island which brought heavy falls to the Tararua Range and Mt Taranaki.

Heavy rain was expected overnight in Auckland, Northland and the Coromandel before moving south into the Bay of Plenty and Gisborne, said MetService duty forecaster Oliver Druce.

He said the "danger time" for the upper North Island would have been last night with possible localised flooding. "If you get a couple of hours of very intense rain there could be flooding and so on ... there's certainly quite a high risk there."

Rainfall was expected to exceed 100mm in many places, especially about the Gisborne and Hawkes Bay regions, where 200mm was forecast.

MetService warned that the downpours could cause localised flooding and rapidly rising streams and rivers. A severe gale warning was also in place for Taupo, Eastern Bay of Plenty, Taranaki through to Manawatu.

Mr Druce said northern areas should see some improvement in weather by this afternoon but Gisborne and Hawkes Bay could expect "several days" of rain.

Meanwhile, the Easter holiday road toll remained at five last night - seven fewer than last year.

The toll was the lowest since 2004, when four died, although five people were killed on the roads during Easter weekend in 2006.

Police around the country warned holidaymakers to drive to the conditions as long queues formed on motorways into the main cities in heavy rain.

In Auckland, Inspector Peter Raynes said the traffic flow was to be expected for a rainy Easter Monday.

A tree and power lines fell across State Highway 1 south of Warkworth, causing further delays, but it was cleared by about 6.30pm.

Roadworks in Northland added to slow-moving traffic for south-bound vehicles. Cars were backed up for several kilometres near Kaiwaka.

There were delays for motorists on SH1 heading into Wellington with congestion starting near Levin. A car accident caused south-bound traffic to come to a standstill. One man was taken to Palmerston North hospital.

The weekend's fifth road death was a 19-year-old man from Waitara who died after the vehicle he was in crashed into trees on State Highway 3 in Eltham, 50km south of New Plymouth, about 9pm on Sunday night.

A second man, a 21-year-old from Eltham, was cut from the vehicle and taken to hospital with serious injuries.

Police believe excessive speed was a contributing factor in the crash.

Two motorcyclists died on Saturday, one near Wairoa and the other in Wellington, while a dairy worker was killed in a crash in Otago and a 21-year-old died when the stolen car he was in crashed in the Wellington suburb of Johnsonville.

The official holiday road toll period ends at 6am today.