Cyclone Wilma heads east

Boaties, campers and east coast residents are being warned to batten down the hatches ahead of tonight's arrival of ex-tropical cyclone Wilma.
The storm is expected to bring heavy rain - up to 200mm in places - as well as gale-force winds and four-metre-plus swells.
"It's definitely an interesting animal. Someone's left the gate open and it's storming across the paddocks towards us," MetService severe weather forecaster Erick Brensturm said.
According to a weather warning issued yesterday, rain is expected to become heavy this afternoon and total 100-150mm between noon and 9am tomorrow. As much as 200mm could fall on Northland's eastern hills, with downpours of up to 30mm/hour in the early hours tomorrow.
The wild weather is expected to clear late tomorrow morning, when Wilma will turn its attention to Auckland, Coromandel, the Bay of Plenty and Gisborne.
Mr Brensturm said as well as rain, people in exposed areas could expect winds averaging 70km/h and peaking at 100km/h, and a northeasterly swell of 4m or more.
Predicting the path of a ex-cyclone was difficult, he said.
Yesterday Wilma was still moving southwest but it was expected to change direction overnight, so the centre would pass just east of Northland's coast.
In that case the worst winds would be out to sea on Wilma's eastern flank.
However, if the centre passed over land the wind would be much stronger.
It would be clear by this morning which path Wilma had chosen, he said.
Weather ambassador Bob McDavitt said worst affected areas would be on the east coast between Cape Reinga and the Bay of Islands.
"Prepare yourselves for heavy rain and a real big bag of wind."
The wildest weather was expected to hit early on Saturday, so Northlanders should make sure they were prepared before Friday night.
The wind would then settle down into "a nice southwesterly", which would clear away the rain clouds before turning westerly, bringing only the odd shower to western areas.
Civil Defence in the Far North is also preparing for the storm and will start notifying people in areas likely to be affected if the forecast remains ominous.
Far North Civil Defence co-ordinator Bill Hutchinson said it was then up to residents to decide whether to put their Community Response Plans into action.
"We will do what we can, but it is up to people to look after their own property."
About eight communities had been notified ahead of last week's storm. This weekend's wild weather was likely to pass more quickly but be more intense, he said.
The rain was likely to cause rivers to rise rapidly, and surface flooding and slips could make driving hazardous.