Storm lashes north

The weather front battering Northland has closed schools, flooded roads and damaged property - and even sent a trampoline flying through power lines.
It also brought tragedy when a car thought to have been swerving around a puddle was involved in a fatal collision.
The crash occurred on Baylys Coast Rd, west of Dargaville, about 2.15pm yesterday.
The rain-sodden front that had stalled over Northland bringing the wild weather has now carted its load further south, but another dousing is expected on Sunday.
The worst-hit place was Oakura, 40km north of Whangarei, with 72mm to 3pm yesterday and a whopping 216mm since Monday.
Schools at Rawene and Opononi in the South Hokianga closed early, while flooded roads cut off Omanaia School from either side.
High winds broke a yacht's moorings and washed it up on the beach at Waitangi; and a rogue gust picked up a trampoline from a backyard on Moerewa's Massey St, carrying it 30m to Pembroke St.
Kawakawa fire chief Wayne Martin said the flying trampoline brought down lines and cut power around 2pm.
A nearby shed was also flattened, he said.
Omanaia School secretary Candice Kendall said most pupils were sent home early but 10 stayed on to wait the floodwaters out.
The road was still passable by 4x4, with school bus driver Robert Pink saying water was coming through the doors when he went to pick the children up yesterday afternoon.
School caretaker Bill Thompson said he hadn't seen the water as high across the road in 30-odd years in the area.
Floods were "just water off a duck's back" to the children.
"But they prefer it in the morning, that way they don't get to school."
Surface flooding was also reported on SH1 near Houhora, Omaunu Rd in Kaeo, and around Waikare, east of Kawakawa.
Far North District Council civil defence co-ordinator Bill Hutchinson said the area "got off pretty lightly" given the seriousness of the forecast and the force of some localised downpours.
Key people in vulnerable areas had been warned a day earlier about heavy rain expected to coincide with high tide in the early hours of  yesterday.
By late yesterday all roads in the Far North had re-opened and a few minor slips would be cleaned up today.
Whangarei was also affected by surface flooding, with manholes on Rewa Rewa Rd, Mill Rd and Kiripaka Rd popping open because of the pressure on stormwater drains.
In the Kaipara, flooding was reported on Kai Iwi Lakes, Omamari, Kellys Bay and Rangiora roads.
MetService weather ambassador Bob McDavitt said Northland would feel a breeze rather than a deluge today  and tomorrow, with southwesterly winds turning northwesterly.
However, that dry, windy period was the ridge between two fronts - the second rain-bearing front would chug over Northland on Saturday, dumping its load later that night and on Sunday.