Weather: More rain to come, but less severe than earlier this week

Time to pull the board games out of the cupboard or binge watch old Disney movies, more bad weather is on the way for most of the North Island as the school holidays begin.

"For Auckland and surrounding areas the front that brought the heavy rain [yesterday] that's sort of moved north of the city, it's expected to drag back southwards," said MetService meteorologist Tom Bell.

"That's going to bring another period of heavy showers probably around the middle of the day and then into [Monday] we have another risk of rain with heavy falls and possible thunderstorms. It's just going to unfortunately continue to be wet for Auckland."

Although the weather isn't expected to be as severe as earlier this week when strong gales brought down trees and caused mass power cuts around Auckland, the continuous rain is likely to be met with frustration at the thousands households still without electricity.

About 4000 properties across the region were yet to have their power restored last night. Some, including those in the settlement of Piha on the west coast, haven't had electricity since Tuesday night.

Dozens of disgruntled residents contacted the Herald on Sunday yesterday demanding answers from Vector and claiming they'd been misled about when power would return.

A woman from Waitoki, north Auckland, sobbed as she told the Herald on Sunday she had not been seen by Auckland Council, Civil Defence or Vector and had spent hours on the phone to Vector trying to get information.

She said she'd been repeatedly told power would be restored by a certain date and time but as those days slipped by she had become increasingly concerned it could be several weeks before repairs were made.

"We just want to know the truth, please," she said. "I just need to have somebody tell us what's happening. We just want to know, to plan for our families.

"People are becoming a little bit frazzled. I'm sick and tired of getting updates, 'It will be at this time, it will be at that time.' This has been ongoing. [On Friday] it was supposed to be (restored) by 11pm. Now it's the middle of next week. When is that?"

In an update yesterday Vector said poor weather on Friday night had hampered restoration efforts, and had created further outages.

The company expected it to be the middle of next week for all homes to be back on the grid.

When asked why some reconnections were taking so long a Vector spokesman said: "It's a really big job".

Auckland Emergency Management said contractors were working around the clock to clear trees from roads.

Trees would be moved to berms and mulched at a later date so contractors could move on to higher priority jobs. It could take weeks for fallen trees and branches to be completely cleared away, a statement said.

A front moving up the South Island today would bring even more wet weather, Bell said.

"That's probably the story for the country for the next few days."

South Island mountain ranges and exposed parts of the North Island could get pummelled by severe gales today and tomorrow.

MetService has issued a heavy rain warning for Fiordland north of Milford Sound and Westland south of Otira. The warning was in force between midday today and midday tomorrow.

Up to 200mm could fall about the ranges, and lesser amounts near the coast. MetService warned downpours may cause waterways to rise rapidly.

Thunderstorms are likely in Fiordland and southern Westland this afternoon and in northern Westland and Buller tonight.

Bell said temperatures for the next couple days would be fairly mild - most places could expect highs in the mid to high teens.

Today's forecast

Whangarei: Few showers, possibly heavy, easing by evening. Northwest developing evening. High of 24C
Auckland: Morning showers, some heavy, easing in the afternoon. Northerlies developing evening. 22C high
Hamilton: Cloudy periods increasing afternoon as a few showers develop. Northeast breezes. High of 20C
Tauranga: Cloudy with a few showers. Southeast turning northeast afternoon. High of 19C
Wellington: Fine with light winds. Evening cloud and northerlies. 17C high
Christchurch: Fine at first, then high cloud thickening and light evening rain. Brisk northeasterlies. High of 15C
Dunedin: High cloud thickening, then rain from evening. Strong northeasterly. 15C high

Source: MetService