On Monday afternoon Cyclone Gabrielle is slightly northeast of Cape Reinga and more than 300km north of the Coromandel Peninsula.
The centre will continue to move south today, and by midnight will be over, or very near, Great Barrier Island.
Gabrielle will then curve southwest, reaching east cape Tuesday evening. But the storm will bring gale-force winds and heavy rain to a much wider area extending all the way to the top of the middle of the South Island.
This afternoon MetService put Hawke's Bay under a red warning for heavy rain.
Red level rain warnings are already in place for Northland, Auckland, the Coromandel Peninsula and the north of the Tairāwhiti/Gisborne area.
MetService says wind gusts have already exceeded 130km/h in parts of Auckland, and 150km/h in exposed parts of Northland.
Red wind warnings are in force for Northland, Auckland and the Coromandel Peninsula, and Taranaki's wind warning has been upgraded to red on Monday morning.
MetService Meteorologist Anges Hines said we can expect further flooding, slips and power outages in these areas.
"All of these places have already dealt with immense rainfall this year, and lots of them are in clean-up mode from recent flooding," said Angus.
Rainfall accumulation levels are expected to still be well in excess of 200mm for populated areas over the next two days.
The storm is also generating enormous waves along the eastern coastline.
Metservice is warning people to take care around high tide this afternoon saying conditions could get dangerous quickly.
