The Juicy Festival stage was being set up during yesterday's storm. Photo / Tania Whyte
This is good news for the Juicy Festival, planned to begin at 1pm today at Semonoff Stadium. It was due to go ahead at edition time yesterday.
The heavy rain caused problems in Whangārei and further south yesterday, as roads were affected by the weather.
State Highway 1 through the Brynderwyns was partially closed shortly after 12pm, after a number of slips and surface flooding. Stop/Go traffic management was put in place. Shortly afterwards, SH1 between Glenmohr Rd and Waipū was completely closed due to flooding.
Around 4pm though the southern detour, along Cove Rd, was blocked after two trucks jackknifed within minutes of each other. The road was down to one lane at times before being blocked totally while the trucks were removed. It was fully reopened about 5.20pm.
As well, SH15 between Loop Rd, Otaika and Maungatapere was closed from late morning, also due to flooding.
Several local roads were also affected by the weather, including Kokopu Block Rd, which was closed by police just before 11am.
Kaka St in Morningside, notorious for flooding amid heavy rainfall, was once again under water. Several cars were stuck in floodwaters and at least one had to be towed.
Riverside Drive was down to one lane by mid-afternoon due to surface flooding, which was particularly heavy near BP Riverside.
Riverside Drive was down to one lane due to flooding. Photo / Tania Whyte
There were several minor crashes around the Whangārei district throughout the day, including two in Waipū in the early afternoon. Several roads in the region were also affected by falling trees, including Puketona Rd in the Bay of Islands, an area that escaped the worst of the storm.
Both police and Waka Kotahi urged people to avoid unnecessary travel until this morning when the cyclone was expected to pass.
All four Air New Zealand flights to and from Whangārei Airport yesterday were cancelled due to the weather. A spokesperson for the airline said impacted customers would be contacted directly and re-accommodated onto the next available services.
There were no major issues on the water in Northland up to edition time yesterday.
Coastguard spokeswoman Julia James said by and large everyone appeared to be staying home and staying safe from the extreme weather.
Surface flooding on Porowini Ave in Whangārei. Photo / Tania Whyte
“It’s great to see people taking advice, especially given you know, this is still holiday time for lots of people. So we get it and understand how frustrating it is, but it’s just not worth getting out there.”
Farmers in the Whangārei district were fed up with wet weather making it difficult to bring in crops and keep stock on dry ground.
Federated Farmers Northland president Colin Hannah said farmers were struggling to get crops in or make silage in the rain.
“We’re a bit over it at the moment. Things are so wet no one can get crops in, silage has been delayed for months and a lot of the grass is starting to rot underneath now with so much rain.”
“It’s more than two months since we talked to the contractor about getting the silage made and it’s still not made.”
Hannah, whose farm is just out of Whangārei, said it was his sixth flood in the last year.
He was hoping for drier weather soon, with grass a major issue despite wet weather being good for growing.
Whangārei district's farms were sodden yesterday. Photo / Tania Whyte
“It’s going to be an interesting year. All this grass we’ve grown, we haven’t been able to harvest.”
It was the wettest year farmers had seen “in recent times”, Hannah said.
Hukerenui farmer Evan Smeath said recent weather had been wetter than he had ever seen it.
“It’s probably the wettest I’ve ever been through and I’ve been farming 43 years.
“It started in May last year and we’ve been wet ever since. We’ve had about seven or eight months so far of being quite wet.”
Heavy rain last week - a total of 155mm - kept his paddocks soaked for about two days, Smeath said, and he was hoping yesterday’s rain would not have the same effect.
“It took a little while for the pumps to keep up, get going and get rid of it.”
Surface flooding on Kokopu Rd. Photo / Tania Whyte
The wet weather was beginning to take a toll on his cows in the last week, Smeath said, with some beginning to get sore feet and mastitis.
“Other than that we’ve been kicking along all right. But it’s starting to get a bit awkward to try and find paddocks that they’re not going to make a mess in.”
Smeath said he had managed to get some silage in brief breaks in the weather, although he had struggled to get maize crops in.
“If we hadn’t had those couple of windows we would’ve been struggling to get good quality silage.”
There should be some reprieve for farmers in the next week, with showers rather than heavy rain likely, with fine breaks.
Sunnier weather is expected by the weekend, with Saturday expected to be the sunniest day, Bakker said.
