Rural Hawke's Bay residents are bracing for more slips and possible road closures after an orange heavy rain warning was issued for the region.
MetService said periods of heavy rain are expected in Hawke's Bay overnight with 80 to 100 mm of rain to accumulate about the ranges, and 40 to 70 mm about the coast.
The Central Hawke's Bay District Council is warning residents in remote areas to prepare and stock up in case they are isolated by road closures.
The council said there are already 35 major slips across the district's roading network, and the ground is at saturation point.
"Central Hawke's Bay rural roads have been hammered by an unrelenting series of heavy rainfalls, strong winds, and earthquake tremors over the past three months," the council said. "There is great concern existing major damage across the roading networks will dramatically worsen with the forecast weather."
Mayor Alex Winter said the current situation will only worsen in the forecasted wet weather.
"This level of damage and impact from recent wet weather is the worst state our roads have been in for decades," Walker said.
"The scale of what we are now experiencing across our rural road network, especially on the coast, is huge. This isn't going to be a quick or cheap fix and we have families, communities, farms and businesses who could be majorly affected."
MetService is also forecasting some heavy showers across Northland, Auckland and the Coromandel Peninsula, with a moderate risk of thunderstorms in these areas.
A heavy rain watch is in place for Gisborne, Coromandel Peninsula and Bay of Plenty west of Tauranga until early Friday morning, and for the Tararua District until 3pm Friday.
A trough of low pressure affecting central and northern New Zealand is expected to move away to the east on Saturday allowing a ridge and settled weather to spread over the country on Sunday.
