"Avoid if possible or #TakeExtraCare."
The New Zealand Transport Agency's Auckland and Northland Twitter feed also warned motorists in our biggest and busiest city to be careful on the roads.
"Wet Roads today. Lights on, slow down & double your following distance to #DriveSafe," they tweeted this afternoon.
MetService meteorologist Ciaran Doolin said about 6mm of rain fell in the central city over an hour
"It's the lower limit for what we consider heavy rain."
In the west of the South Island the ranges south of Otira had just come through a heavy rain event, logging about 50mm over the past 12 hours, Mr Doolin said.
"The worst is gone now. It was nothing spectacular, their average annual rainfall would be in the thousands so 40 or 50mm is fairly normal."
A heavy rain warning remained in place for the Bay of Plenty ranges east of Whakatane through to midday tomorrow.
Totals of 120 to 150mm are possible in the ranges, with 50 to 80mm possible nearer the coast.
A warm day - by winter standards - was expected across the country today, and most of our main centres met expectations, with Hamilton and Tauranga each making their expected highs of 18C early this afternoon.
Christchurch also reached a high of 19C, as forecast, but Auckland and Wellington fell short of their highs of 19C and 17C by 2C each respectively.
The standout was Dunedin, where a top temperature of 17C was forecast and beaten by 2C - with our southern-most large city soaring from 11C at noon to 19C within two hours following a wind change from the east to the nor-east.
The warm temperatures were the result of sub-tropical air from the north and a nor-wester across the south, Mr Doolin said.
The wet day was good news for some.
Julie MacDonald was among those celebrating the positive, tweeting a photo of Auckland's downtown ferry terminal building reflected in a puddle.
Just as well - a switch to a westerly tomorrow and then a return to a high would mean similar damp weather through to Saturday for most, while a big low expected on Sunday or Monday would likely bring bursts of rain and wind across the country.
Tomorrow's weather
Auckland: Rain turning to showers. High 17C.
Hamilton: Rain with chance of heavy falls, clearing to showers. High 16C.
Tauranga: Rain, possibly with heavy falls. High 17C.
New Plymouth: Periods of rain, possibly heavy in the morning and easing to showers later. High 17C.
Wellington: Showers break to mainl fine weather. High 16C.
Nelson: Periods of rain easing. High 15C.
Christchurch: Spits of rain turning to showers. High 16C.
Dunedin: Cool sou-west change, possibility of rain in the evening. High 13C.
