A man has been spotted rowing a boat in the middle of an East Auckland street as roads turned rivers for an afternoon following heavy rain across the top of the North Island.
Studfall St - off the aptly-named Cascades Rd - in the suburb of Pakuranga Heights drew the crowds and water sport enthusiasts, with one man rowing his boat down the street.
"It pissed down with rain, next minute the water was up to our letterbox," he told 1 NEWS.
"So as Kiwis do, I thought we'd hop in the boat, go have a bit of fun - try find some positivity out of all of this, you know?"
A number of cars could also be seen stuck in the water.
Metservice’s Gerard Barrow says Auckland had "about 70mm of rain in a 6-9 hour period."
Police were called in the town of Wellsford north of Auckland, after a Holden ute drove into floodwaters with two people and a dog trapped inside just after 1pm.
In the Coromandel, heavy rain has caused surface flooding and slips, with motorists being urged to delay non-essential travel.
Many roads in the Coromandel region have been closed due to flooding.
Police say while no one has been injured in any weather-related incidents this afternoon, police and emergency services are continuing to monitor the scene.
The band of heavy rain and thunderstorms in Auckland is expected to ease this afternoon and early evening as it moves across Coromandel Peninsula and the west of the Bay of Plenty, MetService says.
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