More rain on the way for Otago, just weeks after flooding there. Photo: RNZ / Nathan McKinnon
The wild weather of the last few days isn't over yet with people being warned to keep an eye on the forecast as we head into the long weekend.
Wind and rain lashed Wellington and the west and top of the South Island on Thursday and Friday, causing travel disruption and some power outages.
While that front would mainly clear up by Friday afternoon, a new weather system was forecast to bring rain to almost everyone on Saturday.
"A large low pressure system is expected to move onto the South Island on Saturday, bringing heavy rain to many areas, and heavy snow to the high country from Canterbury to Otago," MetService said.
Warnings were likely to be issued and people should keep up to date with the latest forecasts, it said.
Metservice meterologist Clare O'Connor told RNZ Saturday would be the "wettest day" of the long weekend.
"That's going to be wet for basically most of the country and then on Sunday we're seeing this sort of shift around to southeasterlies and that southeasterly is going to take all this wet humid air and then mix it in with some cold air and then it is going to then bring it back in to that lower part of the South Island unfortunately.
"So we are monitoring that carefully to see what the impacts could be."
She couldn't rule out potentially flooding.
Places that had already seen a lot of rain - including Westland and Canterbury - would get more, O'Connor said.
And places that had been dry, such as Hawke's Bay, would be drier, she said.
"The watches and warnings (for Friday) will be lifted but we will see some issued for the weekend," O'Connor said.
"What we'll see is the rain heading back to these already saturated areas over the weekend, so Saturday and Sunday, that's where our main concern areas are."
South Island temperatures would also be dropping, she said.
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