While Wakatipu and Wanaka managed to escape the worst of yesterday’s wild winds, they remain on flood watch.
In the past 30 days, 523.5mm of rain has been recorded in the Dart River at Paradise, near Glenorchy — 108mm of that was recorded in the 24 hours to 3pm yesterday.
The Otago Regional Council said the Dart River peaked yesterday morning at a flow of 2080cumecs, which was the second-highest flow for the Dart at the Hillocks site since monitoring began in June 1996.
Queenstown climate scientist Dr Jim Salinger said so far this month 130mm of rain had been recorded in the resort, compared with an average of 63mm.
That was on top of last month being the second-wettest September on record since 1968.
The precipitation meant that by 3pm yesterday, Lake Wakatipu at the Glenorchy Lagoon was sitting at 312.289m, above the first flood warning of 311.9m.
The Queenstown Lakes District Council expected the lagoon to peak at 312.6m late last night or early today, likely resulting in localised flooding to the northwest of the township and around the foreshore.
In Queenstown, the council expected the lake would peak just over 311.4m this morning.
That was likely to result in flooding of low-lying areas in Kingston and around Queenstown’s waterfront, while Queenstown Bay stormwater systems were also predicted to start backing up.
Lake Wanaka is forecast to peak at 279.5m this morning.
This was expected to cause flooding around the foreshore, but it was not expected to flow across Ardmore St.
The council warned businesses to remain alert, but said last night no significant impacts were expected.
There were widespread power cuts around the Wakatipu yesterday, affecting almost 1130 customers from Kinloch to the Kawarau Gorge, while the weather bomb also brought Queenstown Airport to a virtual standstill.
By 3pm, 38 flights — 19 each inbound and outbound — of the scheduled 48 services had been cancelled.
Meanwhile, many Queenstown businesses, particularly those around Steamer Wharf and the waterfront, spent the afternoon filling and stacking sandbags as a precautionary measure — the emergency operations centre, set up in tandem with Emergency Management Otago and others, also ensured sandbags were available in Kingston.
Multiple roads were closed, affected by surface flooding, rockfalls and fallen trees.
While the worst might be over, there was still more rain to come.
Dr Salinger said it would be at least Tuesday before the Wakatipu had any reprieve.
He estimated another 26mm would fall between tonight and Tuesday, and said Labour Day, at this stage, looked particularly nasty.
Temperatures would also nose-dive again before a “big … blocking high” finally arrived.
All major rivers in the district peaked yesterday and remain elevated.