Flash floods hit Mission Bay

Flooding at the corner of Tamaki Drive and Patteson Ave. Pictures / Michael Portman

For a brief time, there was no need to go down to the sea to ride a boogie board when flash floods hit Mission Bay.

The area was hit with heavy rain on Wednesday night that pooled on the streets to knee height, forcing some people to abandon their cars and shop owners to keep mops at the ready as the water flowed over the kerbs.

Local man Michael Portman said he heard the rain just before 8pm and when he looked out his window he saw two children on their boogie boards in the middle of the road behind his apartment.

"At that stage it was about knee deep in Marau Cres."

He said the park on the Mission Bay water frontage area was underwater and it went right back across the road to the shop frontages.

"The storm water outlet that empties on to Mission Bay was just chundering out water. At the traffic lights in Mission Bay there were a couple of cars abandoned, that's how quickly the water came up. It all happened in about half an hour."

Local businesses kept a close eye on the water levels. The staff at Star Mart went out with mops when the water started leaking in the doors and managed to keep it at bay.

MetService meteorologist Rakesh Lal said the showers were from an upper-level cold pool that moved over the entire North Island on Wednesday, causing unstable weather.

"That moved away so there was a more intense period when it was moving off Auckland."

He said the rain radar showed a heavy shower in the Hauraki Gulf around the eastern bays area at 7.45pm. There were others along the eastern suburbs in the Howick area, and on the North Shore later that night. Although there were no rain monitors in those areas, there was a heavy 15ml rainfall about 2am in Whangaparaoa.

He said flash flooding happened when the ground could not absorb the water quickly enough.