KEY POINTS:
Weather forecasters said there was potential for localised flooding and slips in the upper North Island, following chaos caused by torrential rain and strong winds in central regions yesterday.
Police issued warnings for motorists to take extra care yesterday after heavy rain overnight caused flooding on highways and
roads.
On State Highway 2 between Upper Hutt and Petone, water on the road reached up to 300mm deep and, in Lower Hutt, police scrambled to get people to move their cars from carparks and roads when the Hutt River flooded. In the six hours to 11am, 150mm of rain fell, peaking at 33mm an hour.
Winds reaching 150km/h blasted the Rimutaka Hill Rd, and in the Wairarapa, the Fire Service attended more than a dozen jobs involving trees blown onto roads.
In the South Island, gusts of up to 110km/h were recorded, while Civil Defence officials monitored rivers and lakes swollen by days of rain.
Rock falls were reported on some roads and motorists were warned to be wary of flooding in alpine areas.
Heavy wind and rain warnings were in place for Wairarapa, Wellington, Taranaki and the Marlborough Sounds in the morning, with the situation expected to ease by last night.
The MetService said much of the country would be dogged by rain for the rest of the week, and the situation would remain unsettled through the weekend.
Forecaster Andy Downs said the bad weather would resume midweek thanks to a deepening low forming over the Tasman Sea.
"As it approaches New Zealand on Wednesday, we'll start to see rain spreading over much of northern and central parts of the country. In fact, there will be rain across much of the country."
Heavy falls, generated by warm, moist northerlies, were expected between Northland and Bay of Plenty - and including Auckland - tomorrow and Thursday.
Mr Downs said surface flooding and slips were a possibility in the region, which has already been hit by severe storms twice since March.
"We're not looking at the sort of situation as bad as those big floods, but there's always the potential obviously with this northerly rain."
Showers forecast for the north today were expected to clear in the afternoon, before the heavy falls began tomorrow. The wind was also likely to pick up and the outlook for the weekend was not much better.
Those hoping for late snow on Mt Ruapehu before the ski season ends on October 28 were likely to be out of luck.
Mr Downs said any precipitation on the mountain top was likely to fall as rain, but, elsewhere, there was some good news. "At least for those folk in central regions, such as Wellington, Wairarapa and Marlborough Sounds, where we've basically had severe gales for the last umpteen days, at least there won't be much wind there for them in the coming weeks."
