A potent second winter storm is looming, with snow, heavy rain and gales set to lash the country.
The MetService on Wednesday issued a severe weather forecast, saying a "significant storm" was on its way.
Thursday will take a turn for the worse with 48 hours of snow, heavy rain and gales set to lash the country.
Travel in both islands was expected to be challenging, with roads inundated by flooding and wild winds damaging property and making driving hazardous.
Snow was likely to pose problems in Dunedin, North Otago and Canterbury.
MetService issued weather watches on Wednesday for the upper half of the North Island and eastern regions of the South Island.
Forecaster Tom Adams said Canterbury was set to be slammed in the storm, with some parts potentially getting a month's worth of rain in just 24 hours.
"At the moment what we can say with high certainty is that there is going to be a lot of rain that will reach warning criteria."
The North Island was in the firing line, with heavy rain and gales for the Bay of Plenty across to Taranaki north on Thursday and Friday.
Central regions, still recovering from last week's snowstorm, would be pummelled for the second week running. The rain and strong winds would start spreading across both islands on Thursday.
The South Island would then shiver through another cold snap, bringing heavy rain and snow to the eastern and southern parts of the South Island, including Otago, on Friday and Saturday as it slowly moves to the east of the country.
MetService said snow was likely to fall to low levels over inland southern and eastern parts of South Island, including to about 300 metres in Dunedin, 500 metres across North Otago, 300 metres in Canterbury and southern Marlborough on Friday.
The snow dump would affect many higher roads in the region, and could cause problems for livestock.
People in these areas were strongly advised to stay up to date with the latest forecasts.
Meanwhile, severe southerly gales were expected to howl through coastal Canterbury and the Kaikoura coast during Friday and early Saturday.
