Swells to ease in Cook Strait as front moves across country

Passengers travelling across the Cook Strait will have much easier journey tomorrow as rolling waves subside.

A trailer crammed with chilled pork broke loose and crashed into the sea during a rough Cook Strait crossing today at 10.30am.

"The reason why we had such an incident today is we had big swells," a MetService meteorologist Karl Loots said. "It will be much simpler and easier.

"We are expecting swells to ease tomorrow as the wind turns more northerly."

A front moving across the country would bring rain for most areas of New Zealand.

There would be a chance of thunderstorms in Taranaki and Kapiti Coast tomorrow evening.

MetService issued a weather watch for strong wind in most areas of the North Island.

Areas include Auckland, Coromandel Peninsula, Bay of Plenty, Rotorua, Waikato, Waitomo, Taranaki, Whanganui, Manawatu and Taihape, Kapiti Coast, Wellington, Hawke's Bay and Wairarapa.

Wind could reach 100km/h in exposed places, Mr Loots said.

The snow is easing on the Desert Rd where three foreigners were killed in a horrific collision this morning.

It's understood their vehicle lost control as it approached a 65km/h bend on State Highway 1 at Rangipo in the Central Plateau and spun before ploughing into a southbound truck about 7.15am.

While there won't be any snow on the Desert Rd tomorrow, there would be heavy rainfall and the possibility of strong 90km/h winds in exposed areas.