The far north is parched and desperate for water and Kaikohe is scraping the barrel of the town's water supply.
The town could run out of water within a week and the mayor says the situation is as bad as it gets.
"The situation is dire and we are as dry as we have been for many a year," said mayor John Carter.
The council is scrambling to find an alternative water source before time runs out.
"Quite honestly we are not too many days away in that sense and that's why we are acting as urgently as we can," Carter said.
The Wairoro Stream is supposed to supply the far north town with 70 percent of its water, but after months of low rainfall it's been reduced to a trickle.
Months of drought are now affecting the entire country and with the fire danger at an extreme level, even the smallest fire could quickly get out of control.
In Kaikohe the rural fire service has switched off it's connection to the town supply and is using 15000-litre dams to fill their tankers.
One dam supplies enough water to fight a fire for at least 30 minutes but even that supply is running low.
"We're trying to find water wherever we can," said Northland's deputy principal rural fire officer Wayne Martin.
"We're monitoring the river levels everywhere throughout Northland. We have been offered dams from farmers recently, which is really surprising now that they are in crisis mode as well."
