Newshub's weather presenter Heather Keats says "it's not just the North affected by [Cyclone] Gabrielle" as the remnants of the system move south.
Keats told AM the heavy rain and strong winds "will continue for a wee while longer" as the centre of the low tracks around the east of the Coromandel and curves with the land. Keats said the low is expected to be near East Cape by around midday.
"Then slowly it moves offshore and then it races away, but it means we've got another wild morning ahead because the widespread nature of this storm as we're seeing with gusts all the way down to Wellington and it's extending as far south as north Fox Glacier that's just wind. Rain all the way down to Christchurch, so we've got this still, heavy rain, severe gales this morning then the rain starts to break up this afternoon over the North Island."
But Keats told AM it's the wind that sticks around, she says as Cyclone Gabrielle moves, "the wind swings, they rotate clockwise so we've still got another 24 hours of gales for most of the North Island."
The rain then falls further south down the east coast of the motu, "all the way down to Christchurch, even south of Christchurch".
And Keats says that's where the rain will hang around until the end of the week.
"Because with cyclones, as it rotates it flicks bands around, so it clears the North Island but the entire, pretty much down to south Canterbury can expect to see heavy rain through till Friday."
And while the rain that's expected to hit the South Island won't be the same level as rainfalls seen on Sunday and Monday at the top of the North Island, Keats says there is still "serious rain coming".
"[The south is] very dry at the moment it's the opposite of us, where we in the North Island, don't have any capacity to absorb this rain, they don't have any capacity because it's so dry it kind of spills off and over," Keats told AM.
"So it's still a dangerous situation."
The weather present told AM the wind will be "seriously be felt" on the West Coast of the north half of the South Island.
"So it's not just the North affected by Gabrielle."
Watch the full interview above.
