Drier weather in store for Northland after a night of rain and wind

Vehicles make their way through floodwaters on State Highway 1 at Rangiahua, between Ōkaihau and Mangamuka. Photo / Peter de Graaf

After a night of heavy rain and strong winds in parts of Northland, weather boffins are forecasting mainly fine spells for Northland before rain comes back on Sunday.

Mid and the Far North bore the brunt of the wild weather on Wednesday night, although no major slips, flood damage, or evacuations were reported.

MetService is predicting drier weather on Friday and Saturday but the western parts of Northland may see a shower or two in the westerly flow.

A front spreads north on Sunday and most parts of the North Island can expect to see a period of rain as it passes.

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The start of next week looks unsettled for much of the North Island, but a large ridge of high pressure is forecast to build over the country from about mid-week, and a settled second half to next week is forecast.

Northland Regional Council figures show Wekaweka Rd at Waimamaku received the most rain between 5pm on Wednesday and 9.30am Thursday.

The area received 111.5mm, second was Kaikatea Hills in Ngunguru (79mm) followed by Tutamoe Range at 66.5mm.

In the Far North, State Highway 1 at Rangiahua, between Ōkaihau and Mangamuka, was closed due to the flooding for a few hours on Thursday morning.

Flooding in Waihou Valley between Okaihau and Mangamuka. Photo / Peter de Graaf

It remained passable, however, to trucks and four-wheel-drives.

By 9.30am, the water was still flowing swiftly across the highway but had dropped enough that even small cars could get through with care or by travelling in convoy with larger vehicles.

Residents at Rahiri Settlement, on the other side of the valley, told the Advocate they were unable to leave their homes to get to work early in the morning.

Paddocks on either side of SH1 were submerged to the tops of the fence posts.

On the east coast the Kāeo River threatened to flood onto SH10 just north of the town but receded after high tide about 9am Thursday.

Kāeo's aquatic cattle take a stroll through floodwaters. Photo / Peter de Graaf

The wild weather also triggered a number of power cuts across the Far North.

The largest affected more than 1100 households on the Karikari Peninsula from 7.30am on Thursday. That was caused by damage to power pole cross arms and was due to be fixed by 4pm.

Trees hitting power lines caused outages at Russell and Oruru, with the latter leaving more than 30 households without power from 10.45pm on Wednesday.

The damage was due to be repaired by 4.30pm.