Walton-Jones said western areas would get the heaviest rain, while eastern parts of the South Island would get the worst of the wind.<\/p>\n
In Wellington, the weather will give returning holidaymakers a rough welcome home, with an orange strong wind warning in place from 6pm Monday until 10am Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Rain will follow and linger until about mid-afternoon on Tuesday, Walton-Jones said.<\/p>\n
Exposed roads such as State Highway 2 over the Remutaka Hill and the Wainui Saddle on SH1 Transmission Gully could make for a challenging final stretch home.<\/p>\n
Drivers should watch for fallen trees, power lines and wind-blown debris. Trucks, vans, campervans and motorcycles are especially vulnerable to strong gusts, Walton-Jones said.<\/p>\n
A strong wind watch covers Wairarapa, while a heavy rain watch is in place for the Tararua Range.<\/p>\n
Across Cook Strait, Marlborough\u2019s strong wind watch runs from 5pm Monday until 7am Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Affected routes include SH1 between Picton and Kaik\u014dura, SH6 between Blenheim and Hira, SH62 from Spring Creek to the SH6 junction, and SH63 between Renwick and St Arnaud.<\/p>\n
Further south, the Westland ranges are in for a soaking, with 200-300mm of rain forecast in places under an orange warning beginning at 6am Monday.<\/p>\n
Fiordland\u2019s orange heavy rain warning runs from 2am until 9pm Monday, while 140-180mm is expected in the headwaters of Otago lakes and rivers.<\/p>\n
The heavy rain could quickly swell streams and rivers, with surface flooding and slips making roads hazardous.<\/p>\n
Otago also faces a strong wind warning from 11am until 10pm Monday, with watches and warnings covering parts of Canterbury, the Grey District and the Buller District, Southland and Stewart Island.<\/p>\n
Christchurch is under a wind watch, although Walton-Jones said Banks Peninsula was expected to take the strongest gusts.<\/p>\n
Motorists travelling through affected areas are being urged to allow extra time and check conditions before setting off, as bad weather could shut roads at short notice.<\/p>\n
It is a sharp change from Saturday\u2019s warmth, when Christchurch, Blenheim, Napier and Gisborne all climbed above 25C.<\/p>\n
The front should move away on Tuesday evening, but spring will keep things unsettled, with westerly winds and showers following through the rest of the week.<\/p>\n
NZTA predicts busy northbound traffic on SH1 between Ashburton and Christchurch from 12.30pm to 6pm on Labour Day. Graphic \/ NZTA<\/p>\n
NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA) urged drivers to slow down, increase following distances and use headlights in wet conditions. <\/p>\n
Motorcyclists, those towing, and drivers of high-sided vehicles like campervans should take care on exposed roads and pull over safely if conditions become challenging.<\/p>\n
Motorists should avoid floodwaters and pull over somewhere safe if strong winds make driving unsafe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Walton-Jones said western areas would get the heaviest rain, while eastern parts of the South Island would get…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":640576,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[74,95,8606,33443,6559,1345,92205,6721,51720,111,43,139,69,13084,6560,1527,1314,272694,18835,109209,3946,11226,4767,18980],"class_list":["post-640575","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-after","tag-and","tag-closures","tag-heading","tag-heavy","tag-home","tag-journeys","tag-labour","tag-motorists","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-prepare","tag-rain","tag-return","tag-road","tag-shortnotice","tag-strong","tag-threaten","tag-traffic","tag-urged","tag-weekend","tag-winds"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/640575","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=640575"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/640575\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/640576"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=640575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=640575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=640575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}