Studfall St in Pakuranga flooded in severe Auckland weather.
The North Island's wild weather is to ease over the next few days, but snow and strong gales are expected to shake up the South Island.
It follows a sodden long weekend for much of the country, as torrential rain sparked flash floods on the East Cape, forcing the evacuation and rescue of families.
Auckland, Northland, Coromandel, Bay of Plenty and Gisborne remained under watch for heavy rain.
While river levels in the Tolaga Bay area had receded this morning. there was more rain to come with the Met Service forecasting another 30 to 50mm of rain through to 1pm today.
State Highway 35 up the East Coast was open but 12 local roads around the Gisborne district remained closed and there was concern over the state of 11 bridges which would be assessed by engineers today.
Tolaga Bay received further dumps of heavy rain last night but the Hikuwai River, north of Tolaga Bay, while trending down, remains elevated at around 5.5m. The average winter flow is around 2m.
Close to 30 properties in the Arakihi Rd area were still without power. Eastland Network may fly into the area to restore power today as the road remains closed together with Paroa, Mangatokerau, Pa, Waiomoko, Arakihi, Kiore, Anaura Bay, Kaiaua, Waihau Bay, Glenroy, Tauwhareparae and Takapau roads.
Tairawhiti Civil Defence Emergency manager Louise Bennett said the team, including Gisborne District Council's flood warning team, would be keeping a close eye on developments.
"With the catchment already saturated and the Uawa and Hikuwai rivers fairly high, if we get localised rain bands coming through, the rivers could well spike quickly again.
"We feel extremely fortunate that we did not have any fatalities yesterday as the result of the flooding."
Auckland's rainfall was expected to keep easing as the band of weather moves closer to Waikato Bay of Plenty regions.
Most of Auckland's rain fell on Sunday morning and more was expected overnight on Monday when a second heavy warning was in place for between 60 and 100mm of rain until 8am on Tuesday. The brunt of the rain was expected to hit around 2am.
Auckland recorded between 40 and 100mm of rain with places in the north and east receiving the highest totals between Saturday and Monday. Tauranga had 103mm of rainfall and Waikato 37.4mm during the same period.
Most of the bad weather scheduled for the rest of the week is expected to flip and hit the South Island, said MetService shift meteorologist Claire Flynn.
Nine-year-old Kya Smith came prepared for the weather at the Parua Bay Arts Craft and Food Fair. Photo / John Stone
"From around midday we've got another weather feature coming through and that's going to bring widespread showers, possibly heavy on Wednesday."
Flynn said with this weather cycle the severe weather was going to be down south where snow and strong winds were forecast.
The MetService has issued a heavy snow watch for the 12 hours from 9pm today for large parts of Otago and Southland and expected significant accumulations above 400m in some areas.
The warning is in place for Fiordland, inland Southland and Clutha, inland Dunedin, Central Otago and Southern Lakes and a strong wind watch is in place for coastal Clutha and Dunedin from 7pm today until 8pm Wednesday.
Hoar frost in Lauder, Central Otago, at the start of the weekend. Photo / Wills Dobson, Niwa
Auckland, Tauranga and parts of Coromandel were flooded on Sunday, making driving conditions slow for holidaymakers heading back to the main cities today.
Some motorists faced traffic delays during the afternoon as they headed back to Auckland.
Motorists were last night told to avoid Miranda Rd on the Kaiaua Coast after vehicles got stuck in flooding. A detour was in place.
As of last night two people had died on the roads during the long weekend, which officially started at 4pm on Friday and ended at 6am today. Last year four people died on the roads during Queen's Birthday weekend.
Here's the latest Severe Weather Outlook chart. While there are still Watches & Warnings out for the current heavy rain event over the North Island (& Kaikoura), the Outlook indicates what's coming in a few days time. More severe weather info: https://t.co/qHyE5zhh6X ^CF pic.twitter.com/c0ydw3sxaD
