New Zealanders are being told to brace for wet temperatures in the coming days, which will be the result of a tropical cyclone expected to hit Australia on Thursday.
Aotearoa's NIWA advised on X the cyclone, which was forming thousands of kilometres away from New Zealand in the Coral Sea, would "directly influence" our weekend weather.
"Its moisture will get siphoned into a low in the Tasman Sea, culminating in wet weather this weekend," said the forecaster.
"Active" weather was expected on Saturday, particularly in the South Island, NIWA meteorologist Seth Carrier said.
"Many areas [will be] seeing rainfall or showers, some of that rainfall could be moderate to heavy at times - so Saturday looks like a pretty wet, unsettled day in the South Island.
"As for the North Island, we're going to have a front moving north, I think, during Saturday afternoon - especially later in the day.
"We'll see some showers developing across western and southern portions of the North Island."
Heavy rain warnings and strong wind watches have been issued for the South Island's West Coast and parts of Canterbury, Otago, Fiordland, Queenstown and Wellington.
Looking ahead to next week, an "upper tropospheric cyclonic vortex" could hit the North Island on Monday - which could cause "very unstable" conditions with "thunderstorm outbreaks over several days", according to local forecaster Hauraki Gulf Weather.
The latest storm warnings for New Zealand come exactly a week after heavy rain triggered a state of emergency in Westland District.
Across the Tasman, the tropical cyclone - which has been downgraded to category 2 - was expected to cause destructive 120km/h wind gusts for parts of North Queensland.
Newshub.
