A water outage caused by a burst water main in central Wellington is spreading further in the city as crews battle to patch up the rupture.
Water was covering nearly three lanes of Kent Terrace and parts of Cambridge Terrace on Wednesday morning, with drivers going to the airport warned to take an alternate roue.
In an update Wellington Water said a shutdown of water in the area - needed to fix the pipe - had been extended to cover Courtney Place, Kent Terrace, Cambridge Terrace, Hay Street and Telford Terrace.
Contractors were at the scene before 5am on Wednesday.
Commuters were warned to take care in the area.
One cyclist told RNZ she became stuck in silt from the flooding on her way to work.
"I didn't see the sign, there was no sign to see it and I just thought I was going left instead of straight ahead.
"Fortunately there was someone there to help me get out of it and they were very helpful."
Wellington Water said it was a major repair and was expected to take eight to 10 hours to fix.
It was asking motorists heading to the city's airport to go via Oriental Bay.
"At this stage, we don't expect a shutdown to affect any properties but will provide more information as the repair progresses."
In a statement just before 7am, Wellington Water asked people to avoid the area while traffic management was put in place.
"If not please expect delays. We appreciate that this is a main route, so are doing all we can to minimise impact on commuters."
Water was covering nearly three lanes of the road and parts of adjacent Kent Terrace near the northern entrance to the Basin Reserve.
Just before 5am, the main was still pumping water into the street which had reach a depth of nearly 30cm in the centre of the road.
