Storm leaves trail of destruction across Auckland and Coromandel

Wild weather hammered the country leaving a trail of flooding and slips which completely cut off the Coromandel Peninsula forcing holiday makers heading home to hunker down for the night to wait out the storm.

Metservice meteorologist Melissa Oosterwijk said 85mm of rain fell in Whitiangi in just 18 hours on Sunday. The region usually gets around 200mm of rain over the entire month of July.

Most parts of Auckland had between 40mm to 60mm of rain on Sunday, though at one point there was 30mm in just an hour in Albany. The Waikato region had about 30mm of rainfall.

Oosterwijk said the worst of the rain was over although there would still be occasional bursts of rain in Auckland, Coromandel and the Waikato throughout Monday.

She said the low would continue moving down the country but the southern parts would escape the hammering experienced further north.

A car travels through heavy flooding near Manaia on the Coromandel Peninsula. Photo / Alexsandra Matthews

The Thames Coromandel District Council warned State Highway 25 could remain closed into the morning as work to clear the slips continued.

Holiday makers described the "terrifying" conditions on Coromandel roads as they navigated floodwaters and slips.

Philippa McIver was travelling with her family from Te Mata on the Coromandel's east coast to Auckland when she came across one of the slips.

"It was terrifying. The water that we were driving past was swelling over the road, there were waterfalls, a couple of slips that were almost completely blocking the road.

"We had a couple of times when the car was sliding a bit. It felt good to be back on a normal road again."

They reached Tairua but the last road out had now been closed so they headed to a hotel and managed to snap up the last room there.

"My husband's got a meeting [today]in Auckland which people have flown in from overseas for. But he's most likely going to be trapped here."

Flooding on Lenihan Street in Northcote. Photo / Dan Cornish

State Highway 25 was closed at Manaia and again from Whitianga to Kaimarama due to flooding while State Highway 25A (Kopu- Hikuai Rd) and State Highway 25 (Thames Coast Rd) 3km south of Tapu were closed by slips.

Kaiaua took another hammering during the wild weather with a major slip has closing East Coast Rd about 2km north of Waharau. Miranda Rd was also closed near Findlay Rd.

Earlier in the day the weather left its mark on Auckland causing the closures of Tamaki Drive and the Oteha Valley motorway on-ramp on the North Shore.

One family was also forced out of their home when a tree toppled on to their Whangaparaoa house.

Gusts of up to 113km/h were recorded in the Hauraki Gulf while Albany recorded 31.3mm of rain between 7am and 8am today - the third-wettest hour since records for that area began almost nine years ago, according to Niwa.