{"id":583496,"date":"2026-08-29T00:10:13","date_gmt":"2026-08-29T00:10:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/583496\/"},"modified":"2026-08-29T00:10:13","modified_gmt":"2026-08-29T00:10:13","slug":"heavy-rain-for-upper-north-island-avalanche-risk-ongoing-for-south-island","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/583496\/","title":{"rendered":"Heavy rain for upper North Island, avalanche risk ongoing for South Island"},"content":{"rendered":"

The upper North Island is in for a weekend of heavy rain as parts of the South Island<\/a> remain under risk of avalanche.<\/p>\n

MetService has issued heavy rain watches for Northland, Auckland, Coromandel Peninsula and the Bay of Plenty lasting from Saturday morning until late Saturday night.<\/p>\n

It said in most areas there was a moderate chance of upgrading to a warning except for the Bay of Plenty east of Rangitaiki River where there was a high chance of a warning.<\/p>\n

“Periods of heavy rain, and amounts may approach warning criteria and possibly exceed them in localised areas if downpours occur.”<\/p>\n

MetService also encouraged people to clear their drains and gutters.<\/p>\n

Parts of South Island still under avalanche risk after storm<\/p>\n

Queenstown continues its clean up efforts after it was hit by wild weather causing flooding, slips and road closures.<\/p>\n

\"Queenstown<\/p>\n

Heavy flooding on Thursday in Queenstown.<\/p>\n

RNZ \/ Katie Todd<\/p>\n

Forty-five people were evacuated from their homes across the Queenstown Lakes District on Thursday night during the storm.<\/p>\n

Firefighters went to about 16 flooding-related jobs during Thursday night across Queenstown, Frankton, Arrrowtown, Wanaka and Lake H\u0101wea.<\/p>\n

The mayor of Queenstown is hoping residents can return to their homes as soon as possible.<\/p>\n

Mayor John Glover does not know how many people are still unable to return, but is expecting assessments to continue throughout the weekend.<\/p>\n

He said the Civil Defence Welfare Hub at the Queenstown Memorial Centre is still open.<\/p>\n

MetService has lifted all warnings for the South Island but NZ Avalanche Advisory still has avalanche risk warnings<\/a> for many parts.<\/p>\n

Warnings remain in place across the Arthur’s Pass, Aoraki Mt Cook, Ohau, Queenstown, W\u0101naka, and Aspiring regions until Saturday afternoon.<\/p>\n

\"Warnings<\/p>\n

Warnings remain in place across the Arthur’s Pass, Aoraki Mt Cook, Ohau, Queenstown, W\u0101naka, and Aspiring regions.<\/p>\n

Screenshot\/NZ Avalanche Advisory<\/p>\n

A high warning has been issued for Aoraki Mt Cook. Most other regions are under a considerable orange warning except for Queenstown which is under a yellow moderate warning.<\/p>\n

The Mountain Safety Council’s chief executive Mike Daisley said it has received reports of significant avalanches coming down to the valley floor.<\/p>\n

“This is not just a warning to alpine skiers and people heading into high alpine regions and backcountry.<\/p>\n

“If people are considering going tramping into sub alpine regions you need to be aware of the hazards above you.”<\/p>\n

Daisley said people should check the avalanche forecast before heading into alpine backcountry.<\/p>\n

Tongariro is also under a considerable risk of avalanche as well as Taranaki which is under a moderate risk.<\/p>\n

\"Queenstown<\/p>\n

Roads were impacted in Queenstown’s CBD after the storm on Thursday.<\/p>\n

RNZ \/ Katie Todd<\/p>\n

Traffic congestion after road closures<\/p>\n

A number of road closures have also impacted the Queenstown region causing significant congestion in the town on Friday.<\/p>\n

Fernhill and Sunshine Bay Community Association’s Simone Bray said restrictions at the one mile roundabout brought commuters to a standstill.<\/p>\n

“We live on the top of a really big hill so there’s no active transport option for us either so we were sort of just advised if you don’t have to go anywhere just stay at home.<\/p>\n

“The traffic was built up but it was taking people about an hour and a half basically just to go down the hill to get into Queenstown which is normally a four minute drive.”<\/p>\n

Residents in Fernhill, Sunshine Bay, Queenstown CBD and Frankton Road are also being asked to conserve water.<\/p>\n

There had been more than 20 slips, many of them substantial on the stretch between Lake H\u0101wea and Makarora.<\/p>\n

Two cars and their occupants werte freed after being trapped between slips on State Highway 6 near W\u0101naka on Friday.<\/a><\/p>\n

The section of SH6 would remain closed all weekend, NZTA said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The upper North Island is in for a weekend of heavy rain as parts of the South Island…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":583497,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[111,43,139,69],"class_list":["post-583496","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/583496","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=583496"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/583496\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/583497"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=583496"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=583496"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=583496"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}