About half-a-dozen homes flooded in the South Island overnight.
Fire and Emergency (FENZ) crews responded to flooded homes in Greymouth, Cobden, Brunner and Runanga in the Grey District.
Southern shift manager Lyn Crosson said they also responded to a slip on the road in Cobden.
Crosson said they were gearing up for more heavy rain and possible flooding this afternoon.
The scene in Cobden after overnight rain.
Supplied / Jonathan Stark
A heavy rain watch had been in place for the Westland Ranges from 8pm on Thursday until 3am on Friday, with heavy rain forecast to move northwards over the North Island on Friday.
West Coast Emergency Management said on social media it was a “cloud burst style rain event”.
“Please take care as first light arrives.”
Images uploaded by Grey District Council showed surface flooding in Greymouth.
Surface flooding in Greymouth, July 2026.
Grey District Council
Surface flooding in Greymouth, July 2026.
Grey District Council
State Highway 7 was closed between Greymouth and Stillwater. The New Zealand Transport Agency advised road users to avoid the area or delay their journey if possible.
The council said parts of Wickes Street, Richmond Street, Bright Street, Barkley Place, Peel Street, and Sturge Street, all had high surface water, and there were reports of a tree down on Taylorville Road.
A car in floodwaters in Cobden.
Supplied / Jonathan Stark
Heather Keats with details of this weekend’s cold snap
Morning Report
MetService head of weather Heather Keats told Morning Report the heavy rain would head up the west of the country over the next couple of days.
“Sunday’s okay, but today and tomorrow, very much looking messy,” she explained.
“We’ve got a bunch of fast-moving features and fronts tied up and that will be thunderstorms, snow, heavy rain, maybe even some small tornadoes and water spouts. And that’ll race up and over the country – the North Island – tomorrow, and then it kind of races away.
“But then we’re left with a very cold southerly flow. So we’ve got every type of weather coming over the next sort of 48 hours.”
Localised clean-up
Grey District Mayor Tania Gibson.
Supplied / Frank Film
Grey District Mayor Tania Gibson said the rain had eased for the moment, but more showers were expected later in the day.
“Our crews have been out since two o’clock this morning, and now that we’re in the light of day, there’s a lot of assessment going on, there’s a lot of debris to clear, there’s still road closures in the area and we’re trying to find out who’s been affected the most.
“But… some of those outer-lying suburbs have been affected and we had a lot of rain come through on the catchment on the hills, which has brought a lot of rain down into town and to those areas and which has brought a lot of debris down as well.”
She said there would be a reasonably significant clean-up ahead.
“I was at home, but I was up because we had some poor little lambs in the paddock outside that were crying their hearts out. So, but we do have rain events quite often, but it’s hard to assess until you start getting the reports because sometimes, nothing happens, but when they happen in those isolated areas, it’s very quick.
“But where I was there wasn’t a lot, and driving into town this morning there wasn’t a lot.”