Auckland among places under heavy rain watch this weekend

Auckland is among the North Island regions under a MetService heavy rain watch this weekend.

Northland, Coromandel, Bay of Plenty east of Te Puke are also under a heavy rain watch.

The Auckland, Northland and Coromandel rain watch begins at 3am on Saturday October 1 and runs until 3am the following morning.

Bay of Plenty's starts earlier at 6am tomorrow morning until 11pm the same night.

"Rainfall amounts may approach warning criteria," MetService says.

"At this stage it looks like the heaviest rain will affect Auckland and Coromandel Peninsula and it is likely that a warning for those areas will be issued closer to the event."

Further south, parts of Buller and the Marlborough Sounds are under a heavy rain warning until 6pm tonight.