More foul weather on the way

A makeshift 'ferry' transports Swanson residents across a flooded road. Photo / Dean Purcell

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The foul weather that yesterday caused slips, closed roads and sent people packing from their homes is expected to continue for the rest of the week.

MetService forecaster Marylin Avery said rain in most parts of the North Island would ease to showers today with fine spells developing but there would be cold southerly winds.

Tomorrow will see clearer skies with southerlies dying out but by Thursday the rain will be back in most places, brought on by northeasterly winds. Cloudy periods will increase during the day with the bulk of the rain hitting at night.

Friday looks to be wet for most of the day until the wind turns northwest when the rain clears to a few showers. Saturday will see more showers.

The Gisborne and Hawkes Bay areas are suffering the bulk of the wet weather with 180mm set to have fallen by midnight yesterday. Some parts had been hit with about 100mm in the 24 hours until 2pm yesterday.

"It's quite a lot, more than Auckland gets when it gets really wet," Ms Avery said.

"It's quite weird."

The Gisborne District Council was yesterday keeping an eye on river levels throughout the district which were rising rapidly after heavy rain.

They are predicted to rise to 80 per cent full by midday tomorrow with the main areas affected in Waipaoa, Hikawai and Waimata.

Several roads in the district were closed and by 5pm yesterday the council had received more than 100 requests for help relating to stormwater systems or surface flooding.

Police this morning warned a large slip had blocked both lanes of State Highway 2 between Matawai and Wairata. Contractors are working to clear the road.

Three schools were closed because of surface flooding.

Thunderstorms which lashed Auckland overnight on Sunday bought more than 900 lightning strikes. About 400 strikes would have been seen by residents with the rest offshore.

Auckland had only about 25mm to 30mm of rain in the 24 hours until 2pm yesterday.

The Coromandel was another wet spot with Whitianga getting about 80mm of rain in the same period.

The average temperature in Auckland was about 11C and similar in the Bay of Plenty, Waikato and Hawkes Bay. Northland was warmer with temperatures between 15C and 16C.

Meanwhile about 30 residents of Waihi village, northeast of Turangi, voluntarily evacuated their homes after a swarm of earthquakes.

Civil Defence and GNS Science were yesterday assessing the risk of a possible landslide to the Hipaua Cliffs above the village where there have been several slides in the past.

The earthquakes, which started on Thursday, cracked windows and concrete foundations.

The local kohanga reo was closed yesterday.

The area has been rocked by 19 earthquakes - measuring between 2.2 and 4.4 in magnitude and between 3km and 5km deep.

A section of roadworks planned this week for the harbour bridge extension between Tauranga and Mt Maunganui is likely to be delayed because of wet weather. The work, due to take 10 days, required a four-day window of fine weather.