KEY POINTS:
More heavy rain is forecast for Northland, Coromandel and Bay of Plenty residents still cleaning up after flooding late last week.
MetService forecaster Andy Downs said a new low was approaching the North Island and was expected to converge with warm air and bring further downpours, probably tomorrow
night or Wednesday morning.
"There is always payback for warm weather coming in from the north-east.
Warm air is being dragged down and, when combined with unstable conditions, you've got the ingredients for heavy, thundery rain."
That will be heartbreaking news to many property owners living in eastern parts of the North Island, who yesterday took welcome respite in drying conditions to clean up their properties after the deluge of the previous four days.
Thames Coromandel District Council spokesman Peter Hazael said it was too early to put a price on the amount of property damage in the area.
The big wet came on Thursday evening and lasted until late on Saturday night.
Sunshine yesterday had many home and bach owners cleaning up, he said.
All roads had been reopened by 8pm on Friday.
The three Hahei houses that were evacuated because of slips would be assessed by a structural engineer this week to determine whether they were safe to re-enter.
One of those homes has been left teetering on the edge of a bank after one of six landslides in and around the beach resort.
At Lake Okareka near Rotorua, one eyewitness said she was woken from her sleep on Saturday by the sound of a slip, which she described as "a crack, like a large timber truck dropping its load on the road".
Police and fire safety officers attended a home on Okareka Loop Rd, which they determined too dangerous to occupy.
Senior Station Officer Colin Rolfe of the Rotorua Fire Service said the home had partially come off its foundations because of a slip behind it.
The slip had been caused by a large amount of water, but he could not say whether heavy rain or a burst water main had led to the unstable ground.
In Orewa on Saturday night, up to half a metre of water flooded basements on Florence Ave and brought traffic to a standstill on the main highway and on Hibiscus Coast Highway.
About two dozen volunteers worked for nearly three hours until around midnight pumping excess water from homes and roads.
Station Officer Shayne Kennedy of Manly said the high tide, combined with silt buildup from earlier heavy rains, caused the flooding.
However, property damage was minimal as people in low-lying areas had been vigilant about protecting items of value.
Environment Waikato emergency flood response officer Jan Hania said the sudden activity caused by Friday's rain had settled down by yesterday.
"We still got 60mm of rain in the Coromandel on Saturday but, compared to 170mm, that was a lot easier for people to handle."
The regional council would continue to monitor Waikato and Waipa River levels so early warnings could be given to farm owners. Both rivers continued to rise at the weekend.
The Piako and Waitoa Rivers between Matamata and Paeroa have already exceeded early flood warning alert levels and have shown no sign of receding.
On Friday dozens of cows on the Hauraki Plains became stranded on land surrounded by gushing water. Stock losses are not yet known.
Over the weekend in Hawkes Bay - where severe rain warnings are still in place - 80mm fell in Napier and 111mm on Hastings. Senior Station Officer Mike Peachey of the Napier Fire Service said surprisingly few problems had resulted.
Up to 300mm of rain fell in the Ruahine Ranges and the same amount was recorded in the ranges south of Gisborne.
The intensity of the rain in eastern areas of the North Island over the past few days has been caused by the remnants of the low that caused widespread damage in Otago early last week.
Mr Downs said the low in Otago had swung out to the northwest.
It then bore down on parts of the Whangaparaoa Peninsula, Coromandel, Gisborne and Hawkes Bay.
Parts of the Bay of Plenty got away relatively unscathed. While 200mm of rain was recorded in the Karangahake Gorge on Thursday and Friday, Tauranga received only 35mm over the past three days.
The outlook
The flood-hit north and east of the country can expect downpours on Tuesday night or early on Wednesday.
