Nelson in the aftermath of floods on 12 July. Photo: Tim Cuff / POOL
More heavy rain is forecast for the waterlogged Tasman district next week, as well as a drenching for the West Coast and Northland.
MetService was predicting a drastic change in conditions after a period of settled winter weather, with watches and warnings likely to be issued for broad areas over the weekend.
Meteorologist Devlin Lynden said rain and wind were set to return on Sunday, with showers picking up on Monday in Fiordland and on the West Coast.
"On Tuesday that's where the real high risk event starts to begin, that heavy rain for the West Coast continues, and by midday Tuesday we'll start to see some of that heavy rain in the Tasman area, which of course is one of those areas that has been hit particularly heavily recently," he said.
"At the same time midday Tuesday we're expecting some quite heavy rain in Northland as well. Those are the three key areas."
Lyden advised people at the top of the South Island to keep an eye on the forecast, a month after the first flood emergency in Nelson-Tasman.
"The ground is still very wet there and not only that the people there are going to be probably fearing for what is to come, so certainly sympathising with them there and just communicating the risk for that area in particular," he said.
The bad weather was expected to clear on Wednesday.
The Nelson Tasman region has been slammed by two major floods since late last month and is in an official recovery period.
Tasman Mayor Tim King. Photo: Samantha Gee / RNZ
Tasman mayor Tim King met Civil Defence officials on Friday morning because of next week's forecast.
"It's looking far from ideal. Heavy rain, perhaps not as much rain as we had in the previous two events but still significant rain, and unfortunately also gale-force north-easterly winds which are the winds that did such significant damage in the second event, particularly in forestry but also were responsible for a lot of the power outages and road closures," he said.
"There's preparation in terms of both resourcing and all the work that's been done on roads and rivers to try to ensure as much as possible in timeframe we've had to limit any future damage should that forecast be at the worst end of the spectrum."
King said a huge amount of work had been done over the last 10 to 12 days since the region's second flood emergency.
"That's in terms of getting roads open, everyday there's another road that gets at least patched up and opened, big focus on securing bridges particularly and other infrastructure," he said.
"There is still masses to do but a lot of progress has been made, also on individual's properties [including] a huge amount of volunteer work from people like Student Volunteer Army, Taskforce Kiwi and then just other community volunteers as well."
A handful of homes in the Motueka Valley were receiving helicopter supply drops after their road access was cut off in the second of the two devastating floods.
Icy conditions caused multiple crashes this week and caused the suspension of some trains in Wellington on Friday morning.
Lynden said Auckland also recorded its lowest temperature of the year on Friday at 2.6 degrees.
"Taupō, Rotorua, Napier, Masterton, Hamilton and Palmerston North all saw their lowest temperatures of the year this morning as well," he said.
Driving conditions were expected to be hazardous in many parts of the South Island over the next few days because of black ice, with especially dangerous spots in shaded areas and on bridges.
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