MetService has warned heavy downpours overnight were just "the beginning" as a band of wet weather is set to continue into the weekend for some parts of the country.
MetService meteorologist Ngaire Wotherspoon told 1News there had been rainfall of up to 50mm/h in parts of Auckland overnight, with heavy downpours also hitting areas of Northland and parts of Tasman north of Motueka.
"[That is] sort of that upper limit. A lot of places are sort of seeing around 30mm. Mahurangi got 27mm in an hour," she said.
Wotherspoon described the amount of rain that fell around the country in the past 12 hours as a "sustained event" from around 8pm last night to 7am this morning.
"Some of those places in the Tasman District Council area, especially at the ranges [is] an area where we've got that heavy rain.
"So far most of the rain that we've had has been in the Tasman [region] and sort of north of Auckland areas."
An orange heavy rain warning is in place for Bay of Plenty and Rotorua until midnight.
Heavy rain watches are in place for Northland, Auckland, Great Barrier Island, Coromandel Peninsula, Taupō, Gisborne north of Tokomaru Bay, Mt Taranaki, Tasman about and southeast of Motueka, and Marlborough northwest of the Wairau River.
A severe thunderstorm watch is also in place for Northland, Auckland, and Great Barrier Island until noon today.
Wotherspoon said even though some watches are ending, people should not pack away the umbrellas just yet as this was "the start of quite a long period of unsettled weather".
She said the systems are coming from the west, which would see "more impacts and some of the other areas a little bit later".
"We'll be seeing this band of rain move away overnight into Saturday, but we do have more rain on the way. So I wouldn't be planning for a sunny weekend early," she laughed.
The overnight rain also delayed Mt Hutt's opening day as the ski field confirmed rain had "softened our snow pak and we will need this to drain before we can send our grooming team out".
The statement said snow is forecast in the region from 6pm tonight, which it hoped would create "better conditions this weekend".
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