Wind gusts lash parts of NZ, Tasman prepares for heavy weather

Tasman's mayor says there are "tired and exhausted" people in his communities as residents prepare for heavy rain and strong wind forecast to hit the region today.

Yesterday MetService issued orange heavy rain warnings and strong wind watches for parts of the country, expected to continue into this afternoon.

This morning, MetService meteorologist Heather Keats told Breakfast "some strong wind gusts" picked up last night before the fronts arrived.

"Places like Kaio, Cape Reinga, they've had gusts of up to 124km/h," she said.

"The strongest gust has actually been the Methven high country, they had a gust of about 238km/h, but that’s expected, we see that a lot. It’s elevated. It’s quite exposed.”

Auckland Harbour Bridge recorded gusts of just under 90km/h this morning.

"The rain is just starting to tick up, so some of those totals, about 100mm in the last 12 hours for Kaikohe.

"For the Tasman ranges, obviously a point of interest, they've had 60mm so far, but those totals will very much increase significantly across the day."

A major Nelson state highway will close and a wind warning has been issued for the Auckland Harbour Bridge from midday.

NZTA said State Highway 6 at Rocks Rd in Nelson would be closed due to expected sea and weather conditions.

System manager Rob Service said waves were expected to affect the road at high tide.

"The closure is expected to run from 11.45am to approximately 1.30pm. Although, reopening will depend on the weather and sea conditions."

Meanwhile, an amber alert wind warning will come into effect for the Auckland Harbour Bridge with up to 95km/h gusts forecast.

The bridge will move to a four-lane each way configuration which might remain in place during the evening peak if the amber alert is extended.

"Drivers of high sided vehicles and motorcyclists are advised to avoid the Auckland Harbour Bridge and use the western ring route on State Highways 16 and 18."

Keats said swell height was also increased due to the northerly wind direction.

"We’re seeing increased wave height for areas that are normally quite sheltered, so places down the Hauraki Gulf, Waiheke, Rangitoto Island, even some of the North Shore beaches in Auckland can expect some coastal hazardous conditions today."

In Bay of Plenty's Pukehina, the maximum wave height was 6.4m and significant wave height was 4.1m. Tauranga recorded a maximum wave height of 5.9m and a significant wave height of 3m.

Marsden Point, located at the southern entrance to Whangārei Harbour in Northland, recorded a maximum wave height of 4.3m and significant wave height was 2.3m.

"Places of most concern is still in Tasman, specifically east and south of Motueka, but that excludes Nelson City districts. So there is still a high chance that that could be upgraded to a red warning today.

Heavy rain was forecast through until 9pm today.

"Heavy rain is the biggest concern with this system. Places like the Coromandel, Bay of Plenty. They can expect up to 200mm of rain and there's going to be downpours as well because thunderstorms are likely especially this afternoon and evening as those fronts move through."

Tasman was one of the regions in the firing line for more bad weather, with Mayor Tim King saying the biggest areas of concern were "key areas around the upper Wai-iti Valley and the upper Motueka Valley" which were both impacted during the two previous weather events in June and July.

"The rain kind of runs from 6am this morning through to kind of early evening today. So heaviest rain [in the] middle of the day coincides with high tides and also high winds expected in the middle of the day as well."

"But the warning covers a fairly large part of the district and it will depend a lot on the wind direction as to exactly where the impacts may end up being," he said.

King said the strong wind would be an issue, particularly for bringing down trees.

"One of the big issues in the last event on July 11 was the amount of trees that came down across wide parts of the district, but particularly the roading network, to just be very aware of the wind and also does shift where the impact might be. Change in wind direction can mean the rain impacts in different areas."

He said residents were "well and truly over it".

"There's certainly lots of people [stressed] after the first two events, and obviously with this one being forecasted, it's a whole other level of stress.

"It is phenomenal how resilient particularly rural communities are to these events and the amount of work that's gone on over the two weeks. We've had two really good weeks of weather and the volunteer effort, the work of landowners, council contractors has been amazing.

"We're in as good a place as we can be, given the last kind of four or five weeks to deal with this event, and that's largely down to the massive effort of both land owners, volunteers and council contractors and staff.”

He said the river and roading networks were "so heavily impacted".

"The last two weeks of very good weather has certainly helped in terms of preparation. But yeah, people are well and truly over it. So there's a lot of very tired and exhausted people, and the impact on people's properties is tragic to go and visit and just hear their stories."

In an update at 10am today, heavy rain warnings were issued for Northland about and southeast of Takou Bay, Auckland including Great Barrier Island, the Coromandel Peninsula, the Bay of Plenty, Central North Island mountains, Taranaki Maunga, Tasman from Motueka westwards, Nelson City District and Marlborough (west of Havelock and north of the Wairau River), Tasman east and south of Motueka (excluding Nelson City District), the headwaters of the Otago lakes and rivers ( northeast of the Harris Mountains), the ranges of Westland District, headwaters of the Canterbury lakes and rivers (south of Arthurs Pass).

Waikato, Waitomo, Taumarunui and Taupo and Gisborne Tairāwhiti north of Tokomaru bay were under a heavy rain watch into Wednesday.

A strong wind watch was issued for the Chatham Islands, Northland, Auckland including Great Barrier Island, Coromandel Peninsula, eastern Waikato and Bay of Plenty, Gisborne/Tairawhiti and Mahia Peninsulam, Taranaki to the Central Plateau (including inland Whanganui) about and south of the mountains and high-country.