Pest from the west moves on: Blue skies return to Northland after morning deluge

Blue skies have returned to northern parts of the North Island after a heavy bout of rain this morning.

A deluge from 8am this morning followed heavy rain overnight, with 77.6mm falling in Kerikeri, 42mm in Kaitaia, and 30mm recorded in Cape Reinga since 10pm last night.

Northland Civil Defence spokesman Murray Soljak said the region wasn't hit as hard as expected, with peak rainfall recorded before 10am.

There were no evacuations or weather-related emergencies that he knew of.

"A few rivers got to the point where they flooded nearby roads and then receded," he said.

"There were no road closures and no homes were under threat."

Some fearful residents of the small Northland settlement of Otiria deployed sandbags at the edge of their properties, but Soljak said the rainfall was not above what the region could cope with.

Rivers were only slowly rising and motorists were advised to take care on the roads due to localised surface flooding.

The marae and land around the rural community were inundated just three weeks ago when Northland was hit by a one-in-500-year-flood.

The region remained under a heavy rain warning until this afternoon, as the weather system moved towards Auckland and the Bay of Plenty.

A swathe of heavy rain and strong wind warnings and watches remain in force for Auckland, Waikato, Coromandel, Bay of Plenty and Hawke's Bay.

Niwa today warned of a threat of thunderstorms leading to slips and flooding across Northland and Auckland coinciding with school pick-up and the start of rush hour.

MetService said the latest tropical-fuelled deluge was likely to have a significant impact for Northland where the ground was still saturated from last month's storm.

Meanwhile, a road snowfall warning has been issued for the Desert Rd tomorrow with up to a centimetre of snow settling on the summit.