Heavy rain which has been lashing Wellington this morning is set to move north during today, bringing with it driving rain and wind.
The capital woke to a grey and miserable day this morning, but forecasters are assuring "the worst of it has passed".
"At the moment we have a rain band sitting across the lower North Island and there are some heavy falls within that rain band," Hannah Moes, MetService duty forecaster, said.
"So we have a heavy rain warning out for the Tararua Ranges and the Eastern Hills of Wellington, which warns of periods of heavy rain or snow at higher levels, to ease this afternoon."
Between 50 millimetres to 70mm of rain is predicted to fall over those areas between 9am and 6pm today, with 20cm to 40cm of snow possible above 800m.
While there is no watch or warning for wind, Ms Moes said strong winds with gusts of up to 90 or 100km/h are expected.
The MetService heavy rain warning is enough to make trampers think twice about venturing outside, stating: "Rain, snow and gale force winds are likely to create difficult conditions for trampers and other Forest Park users with low visibility and severe wind chill possible, especially about the ridges."
However, the band of rain will begin to move north throughout today, with the rain easing off in Wellington by late this afternoon or evening.
"[We are] expecting that rain to ease to a few showers and clearing over night, and it should be mainly fine tomorrow," Ms Moes said.
That rain will continue to fall hard as it moves over other regions.
"The band of rain is expected to move north over most of the North Island today, so it should lie over southern Coromandel/northern Waikato area tonight by midnight, and then tomorrow morning it's weakening as it moves over the Auckland-Northland region."
Auckland will escape the worst of the weather today, with just a few showers predicted, becoming more frequent this evening and overnight.
"Tomorrow it's just showers throughout most of the day [for Auckland]," Ms Moes said,
- Patrice Dougan of APNZ
