By Jordan Smith, Local Democracy Reporting
Two classic cars in Whiritoa for Beach Hop had to be rescued by Paeroa Towing Services.
Photo: Paeroa Towing Services / supplied
Two classic cars had to be towed out of Whiritoa on Friday after floodwaters rose to their steering wheels.
It comes after a soaking for Coromandel Peninsula over the past 24 hours, with rain trackers outside of Coromandel Town recording 347mm of rain.
The owners of the Holden EH and a 1954 Chevrolet were visiting from Dunedin to attend Repco’s Beach Hop event, Paeroa Towing Services owner Mike Small said.
They were staying in a local Airbnb when the weather closed in. Small was in Whiritoa at the time ready to help, and successfully extracted both cars.
Elsewhere in the region, Whitianga recorded 200mm+ of rain according to Thames-Coromandel District Council Mayor Peter Revell, creating a high level of surface water.
He said several hundred homes in the north of the peninsula were affected by power outages, including some in Coromandel town.
There had been no threat of life reports and no reported house flooding and “the worst of the weather seems to have passed”, he said.
Fire and Emergency New Zealand said 13 callouts were made between the hours of 5pm Thursday night and 6am Friday morning, ranging from fallen trees in the Waikato and the Bay of Plenty regions to roofs blowing off in the Waikato.
The Castle Rock storm tracker in perspective to Coromandel town.
Photo: Waikato Regional Council / supplied
Additional calls were made on Friday morning about more fallen trees and flooding in the Waikato and Coromandel areas.
Looking forward, MetService has removed any weather warnings in Coromandel.
“We expect the weather to improve later this evening,” Civil Defence and emergency manager Brian Carter said.
“Please stay updated via our Facebook page, and remember – do not drive through any floodwaters.”
– LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.