Bad weather is set to continue for the top of the North Island, with heavy rain and wind descending on the country.
Following severe gales and heavy rain on Sunday, MetService were warning of periods of intense rain continuing from overnight, into the morning.
There was a heavy rain warning in place for Coromandel Peninsula, Northland and Gisborne on Monday morning.
Coromandel was hit by the worst of the weather, with up to 140mm of rain expected between Sunday night and Monday afternoon, according to MetService.
A strong wind watch was in place for Northland, Auckland and Coromandel, with severe gales gusting up to 130kmh.
“Strong wind gusts could damage trees, powerlines and unsecured structures”, it said.
The bad weather wasn’t expected to ease anytime soon, with rain forecasted late into the week in Auckland.
Tauranga was expected to be worse off, according to MetService, with heavy rain possible for almost every day.
Conditions are better the further south down the country you are, with Wellington on track to hit22C on Tuesday.
The South Island manages to avoid most of the rain, with temperatures passing the 20C mark in Christchurch later on in the week, before clouds roll in around Friday.
Dunedin, although clear, stays a bit cooler, hanging around the 16C mark.
Meteorologist John Law said rough seas would accompany the wind and rain too.
“There’s already plenty of severe weather warnings and watches in place”, he said.
JOHN BISSET/Stuff
Thousands were left without power on Sunday night due to the bad weather (file photo).
High pressure down south was keeping things fine and dry across the South Island, Law said.
On Sunday evening, thousands were left without power as bad weather hit the top of the North Island.
There were about 15 outages, reported by Top Energy and Northpower, as of just after 8pm.
The biggest of these was in Okiato, in the Far North, which affected 1106 homes.
The potentially damaging rain and wind was being brought towards northern areas by a large, deep complex low pressure system, MetService said.
The system includes the remnants of Tropical Cyclone Lola, which left a path of destruction across parts of Vanuatu.
Some lanes on the Auckland Harbour Bridge had to be closed due to the bad weather.
Around 8pm, Waka Kotahi said that lane closures and speed limits remained in place, as light and high-sided vehicles were advised to detour for safety reasons.
