• Fourteen-hour heavy rain watches have been issued for Auckland, Coromandel Peninsula, Bay of Plenty, Gisborne and Hawke’s Bay, north of Mohaka.
• A Northland road has been closed to all traffic after a major slip and is unlikely to reopen fully until early August.
• Strong winds may cause delays on Auckland’s Harbour Bridge from 8pm Thursday to 9am Friday.
• The storm should ease by early Friday morning, with the last rain clearing from Gisborne about 9am, MetService says.

Heavy rain and gales have soaked most of Northland and caused a major road slip.

Waiotemarama Gorge Road in South Hokianga has been closed to all traffic and is unlikely to reopen fully until early August.

Motorists can expect detours along State Highway 12.

The slip, which began during Tuesday’s storm, has now taken a significant section of road between Kelly Road near Pakanae and Smoothy Road, a spokesperson for Far North District Council said.

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Meanwhile, Auckland motorists should be prepared for possible delays over the Harbour Bridge after MetService release a strong wind warning for the area from 8pm Thursday to 9am Friday.

“High sided vehicles and motorcyclists are advised to use SH16 and SH18 as an alternate route,” Waka Kotahi NZTA said.

Earlier in the week,Northland was hit hard as the country got walloped by a storm which closed highways, flooded paddocks and brought snow to some parts of the South Island.

MetService has issued a heavy rain warning for Northland, telling residents to expect between 50mm and 70mm between noon on Thursday and 3am Friday.

A seven-hour strong wind watch has also been issued for the region, between 11pm on Thursday and 6am Friday, with southwest winds approaching severe gales in exposed places.

MetService meteorologist John Law said Northland would bear the brunt of the system – with areas that were already flooded likely to be made worse.

Slips are also a risk on the sodden land.

Kerikeri has already had 236mm of rain in July, well above its average of 188mm for the month, Law said on Thursday morning.

“It’s lots of rain and the ground is saturated. It’s this succession of low pressures which have brought the bouts of rain – you’ve got to look not just at an individual event but what’s been happening the last few days.”

Northland isn’t the only area forecast to receive heavy rainfall and strong southwest winds, with the northeast of the North Island set to be doused as the system moves down the country.

Fourteen-hour heavy rain watches have been issued for Auckland, Coromandel Peninsula, Bay of Plenty, Gisborne and Hawke’s Bay, north of Mohaka.

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The rain is set to hit on Thursday, starting at Auckland and Coromandel from 2pm, Bay of Plenty from 6pm, Gisborne from 7pm and Hawke’s Bay from 9pm.

There is also a strong wind watch for Auckland, including Great Barrier Island and Coromandel Peninsula for the nine hours from midnight Thursday.

Law said the good news about the system is that it should slide away pretty quickly and most areas across New Zealand are expected to have a relatively fine weekend.

The only exception is the South Island’s west coast, where rain is forecast for Saturday.