The heavy rainfall experienced on Sunday continues to affect rivers and lakes in Otago and Southland, with some high levels expected to remain for several days.
The high flows of the Waitaki River may have damaged piers of the Waitaki Bridges, at Kurow, prompting the New Zealand Transport Agency to close the bridges yesterday.
They may be closed for several days.
Environment Canterbury recorded the Waitaki River peaking at 1514cumecs at Kurow at noon yesterday.
NZTA area manager Colin Hey said last night "until river levels fall, trying to get an idea of what we are dealing with is difficult".
"It is a matter of waiting until the river drops and assessing what repairs are required.
"Once completed, we can look at the options for getting the bridges operational again."
Until the bridges reopen, residents face lengthy detours. These include using the bridge over the Waitaki River on State Highway 1 near Glenavy, or travelling on SH8 through Lake Tekapo and Fairlie. The Otago Regional Council said the Clutha River peaked at 1880cumecs at noon yesterday, the highest level in the lower Clutha since 1999.
The level caused flooding to low-lying areas close to the river, up and downstream of Balclutha, but council resource science manager Matt Hickey said it was "within the capacity of the flood scheme" and did not create serious problems.
However, as flows at Roxburgh dam were more than 1400cumecs, the river was expected to remain high for several days. Contact Energy was forced to spill water from Clyde and Roxburgh dams yesterday.
Meridian Energy was spilling 95cumecs from Lake Tekapo, 660cumecs from Lake Pukaki, and 53cumecs from Lake Ohau as the lakes' water levels breached maximum operating capacity.
Lake Wakatipu also reached flood levels, peaking at 310.8m, but was expected to drop slowly over the next few days.
The Pomahaka River peaked at 454cumecs at 10am on Monday, the second-highest value since records began in 1992.
Downstream, the Pomahaka at Burkes Ford peaked at 764 cumecs at 7.30pm, before dropping to 280cumecs yesterday morning.
All flows were expected to recede, with no weather forecast to create further problems, Mr Hickey said.
Environment Southland said the Mataura River peaked at 2.55m above normal at Gore at 10.50am yesterday, about 20cm less than predicted.
