KEY POINTS:
Heavy rain in Wellington and Wairarapa has put the Ministry of Civil Defence on alert for flooding.
At noon Greater Wellington regional council reported widespread flooding through Wairarapa, particularly south eastern areas.
Staff were constantly assessing the situation and monitoring rivier levels.
Civil Defence centres had been activated in South Wairarapa and Masterton. A large number of roads were closed throughout the region with many others marginal.
The ministry has activated the National Crisis Management Centre (NCMC) to monitor the heavy rain, which MetService forecasts to continue for the rest of the day.
As catchments in the area had already experienced significant rainfall, more heavy rain had potential to cause flooding, the ministry said.
The MetService said a further 30 to 50mm of rain was possible in lower lying parts of the Wairarapa and the Hutt Valley.
Southerly winds with gusts up to 110km at time in exposed places were also predicted in Wellington.
Heavy rain overnight in the Wairarapa - particularly in south eastern areas - had already caused flooding with drivers asked to take extreme care on all roads and to drive to conditions.
The MetService issued a heavy rain warning for the Wairarapa, Wellington and Kapiti regions for the next eight hours.
The Huangarua River was currently at a level of 4.4 metres and the Ponatahi Bridge was closed. The Ruamahanga River was currently at a level of 4.7 metres.
Greater Wellington Regional Council senior communications adviser Catriona Robertson said staff were assessing the situation and monitoring river levels.
Local councils were assessing all roads, she said.
It was expected the Lower Valley floodways would be operational later in the day.
Travel disrupted
Bad weather was disrupting travel in the region and elsewhere in the country. Motorists in Wellington were urged to take care on the roads as a slip on State Highway 2 caused a backlog of traffic.
Inspector James Taare said at slip at Horokiwi, near Petone, meant drivers had to be even more alert to the driving conditions in the area. He said there had also been two multi-car nose-to-tail accidents already this morning.
Seven metre swells and 70 knot winds forced Toll Shipping to cancel its Cook Strait ferry sailings this morning.
Spokeswoman Sue Foley said the earliest sailing could be at 2pm but a review of the weather conditions would be made at midday.
"But the way the weather is at the moment it may be that we don't have any sailings all day," she said.
Bluebridge spokeswoman Wendy Pannett said the 3am sailing from Wellington had been cancelled and the 7am sailing from Picton had been cancelled because of the weather.
Further north, fog was the problem at Rotorua airport, delaying flights to Wellington and Auckland. A spokeswoman said the fog had now cleared and all flights were on schedule.
Wintry blast
However, the South Island escaped the full brunt of a wintry blast which was predicted to hit overnight, with fresh snowfalls mainly contained to higher ground.
Regions which had been hit by hard heavy snowfalls in recent weeks were spared further falls but police warned travellers to drive to the conditions with some roads affected by ice.
A Dunedin police spokesman said there had been some snow overnight but had mainly fallen in the hills, particularly near Three Mile but there had been no reported problems.
Icy road conditions were though reported in Clinton, South Otago, where drivers were advised to drive carefully. And ice on the runway caused Dunedin International Airport to delay its scheduled departures and arrivals this morning.
A Dunedin spokesman for Air New Zealand said two 737 domestic flights -- one arrival and one departure had been disrupted because of the ice.
Staff were now working to remove ice from the aeroplanes but scheduled services were expected to resume shortly, he said.
Metservice said the South Island had largely seen the worst of the cold snap moving up the country.
The New Zealand Rugby Union is offering 100 free tickets to Saturday night's Tri Nations rugby test between New Zealand and Australia in Christchurch to South Canterbury families hardest hit by the recent wintry weather.
The NZRU and Canterbury Rugby Football Union have also offered discounted tickets to power company staff who worked under extreme conditions to get electricity restored.
- NZPA
