
Heavy rain and strong wind watches remain place for parts of Canterbury north of the Rakaia River and the Kaikōura coast to Seddon until 11am.
Flooding closed a section of State Highway 75 last night. The road reopened early this morning.
Parts of the Selwyn district, including Lowes Rd in Rolleston and Stonebridge Way, Prebbleton, were also partly covered by flooding.
MetService said the rain caused surface flooding on some southern slopes of Banks Peninsula, but started to ease about 3.30am on Wednesday.
Nearly 100mm of rain fell in Banks Peninsula over 12 hours.
MetService said the rainband was moving northwards towards Kaikōura and Marlborough.While it appeared to be easing, it could still bring heavy downpours to Wellington on Wednesday morning.
Fire and Emergency NZ had received three reports of tree branches falling in Christchurch and Diamond Harbour.
However, they were minor and would be referred to the council.