Relentless monsoon rains have triggered flash floods and landslides, destroying thousands of houses, farmland, bridges and roads, with fast-flowing waters hampering relief efforts.

Sophie Langston and her partner, Simon Thomas, weren't looking forward to their drive back to Auckland after a family funeral in Whanganui.

It's takes more than the worst recorded flood in Whanganui history to put Riverside Bar regulars off a night at their favourite watering hole.

While the floods that swamped Whanganui appeared devastating enough from aerial pictures, the view from space has offered another perspective altogether.

Between 20 and 25 families remain stranded on their South Taranaki farms, while many roads remain closed throughout flood damaged areas.

Three days after the floods hit Whanganui, there's no word yet on when residents evacuated from their houses can return.

Red Cross is launching an appeal to help those affected by the weekend's floods - a disaster the organisation has labelled the worst to strike New Zealand since the Canterbury earthquakes.

The state of emergency has remained in place for Whanganui and Taranaki three days after flooding caused evacuations, slips, road closures and power cuts.

Whanganui holiday park owners are now wading through mud after the river nearby broke its banks.

It was a paramedic's "horror story" - trying to get a woman apparently in labour to hospital in the middle of a flood.

Flooding caused road and bridge closures, cut power to homes and forced people to spend night in emergency accommodation or with friends and family.

More than 400 people were evacuated from flood-hit homes in lower North Island towns across Taranaki, Horowhenua, Manawatu, Rangitikei and Whanganui over the weekend.

The Whanganui River has burst its banks, and the public are being warned to stay away from the river.

Heavy rain has kept Hokitika residents awake through the night with serious flooding causing many people, including 20 retirement home residents, to be evacuated.

A young Dunedin family has been left with nowhere to go after being told to leave their flood-damaged property.

With one of her 7 children due to have brain surgery, the last thing Natasha needs to worry about this week is looking for somewhere to live.

Firefighters and police were responding to reports of surface flooding in and around Levin last night, just a day after a disastrous deluge in Wellington.

Two flood-damaged police cars were written off in one year, with more than $71,991 being spent on repairing vehicles in the Northland police fleet.

Flooding is causing problems throughout Wellington this morning, with the Fire Service called to 30 incidents of flooding in the last two hours.

Rescuers are struggling to get help to the tens of thousands of people affected by Malaysia's worst flooding in decades as angry victims accused the Government of being slow in its response.

A year ago, Typhoon Haiyan created a series of storm surges that left several thousand people dead and around four million homeless.

Hundreds of children attending a church camp in San Bernardino are among thousands of people trapped.

One of the men killed in a pawn shop in south Auckland on Saturday had recently returned from helping flood victims in Northland, a witness says.

The Civil Defence has warned Northland to prepare for further flooding as heavy rain and gale force winds lash the region again this weekend.

The 7-year-old son of the woman who died in a flood-swollen Northland river is living with his great-grandparents, as he comes to terms with losing his mum.

Auckland lines company Vector says it is still assessing the financial cost of last week's storm.

A woman who was swept to her death in a flood-swollen Bay of Islands river was a 28-year-old mother from Wellington.