Wet weather is due to ease off today but it'll be a short-lived respite with more heavy rain and gales forecast for many places later in the week.
Central New Zealand had a rainy start to the day - Christchurch had 15mm of rain between midnight and 8am, Nelson recorded 16.6mm and 13.6mm fell in Wellington.
In Wellington, flooding cleared on the Hutt Road (SH2) the Ngauranga Interchange after heavy rain last night, but the city council is warning there is flooding in other parts of the city.
A heavy rain warning is still in place for northern Marlborough this morning, and more rain is forecast for the Canterbury plains south of the Rakaia River, and inland Canterbury and Westland, and the Bay of Plenty and Gisborne ranges, the central high country between Taranaki and Bay of Plenty.
The rain is due to clear in central New Zealand, Auckland and the north during the day, MetService says.
But forecaster Robert Kerr says the weather's uncertain over the rest of the week - and there's no guarantee of fine weather over Christmas either.
"Another front is going to move up the South Island on tomorrow and onto the North Island on Friday," he said.
"Through the weekend, much of the North Island could be okay but we've got a third front that's making its way over the South Island."
NIWA is forecasting Wellington to get the most consistently windy weather of the main centres, though Auckland will be in for its share.