The fog that has been such a feature of last month stayed away from the main centres this morning, but Air New Zealand confirmed two flights from Hamilton had been cancelled as a flow-on effect of fog in the city last night.
Affected passengers would be re-booked on alternative services.
Metservice meteorologist Angus Hines said a low pressure system was to blame for the expected soggy weekend.
"There's a tangle of fronts spiralling out of that low pressure system, which is stationary off the West Coast of the South Island.
"The fronts are bringing bands of rain to a lot of the country ... pretty much the whole country is going to get some kind of variety of rain."
The West Coast of the South Island would likely experience the heaviest downpours, with heavy rain also having fallen in the area, as well as the Canterbury headwaters, Buller, Nelson and the Bryant and Richmond Ranges.
This was expected to continue until late this afternoon or tonight.
In Bay of Plenty rain was expected to become heavy overnight before easing about midday tomorrow.
A severe weather watch has been issued for heavy rain in Auckland overnight, as well as the Marlborough Sounds, Northland and Coromandel Peninsula. Westland, Buller, Nelson, Taranaki and Auckland are under a watch for gales today.
The weather gods have also shown no respect to All Blacks fans desire to see free-flowing footy at the Cake Tin tonight.
The second test against the touring British and Irish Lions will be a wet affair, with rain likely in the capital during the game, Hines said.
Winds of 20-30 kilometres per hour were also expected, but coming from the north meant it wouldn't be bitterly cold.
Temperatures in Wellington are expected to hover around 12C throughout the day.
Tomorrow was looking a little better over the country, but anyone expecting a crisp, sunny winter's day would be disappointed.
"That kind of weekend is not really on the cards."
The working week was also looking messy, he said.
There may be a brief respite early in the week before a trough approaches the country from the Tasman Sea late on Wednesday.
