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The Kaikōura District Council says floodwaters are receding across the district and building inspections are being carried out following severe weather.
Heavy rainfall has led to washed-out bridges and to evacuations in the area, where a state of emergency has been in place since the Kowhai River breached its banks on Tuesday.
The council this morning said people who chose to leave their homes, and weren't subject to an official evacuation request, could return if their property hadn't been damaged.
Road closures remain in place today, including on State Highway 1 from Ward to Waipara, and people have been told to avoid unnecessary travel.
A heavy rain watch, downgraded from a red heavy rain warning, is in place for the area until 6pm on Thursday.
Property write-offs 'highly possible'
Kaikōura's mayor says it could be a couple of days before some evacuees can return to their homes following significant flooding in the district.
Craig Mackle told Midday Report Kaikōura was cut off with no safe way in or out.
He said building assessments were being carried out on properties that had been flooded.
He said he could not confirm the number of damaged properties at this stage, but he suspected some homes had been written off because of how severe the floodwaters were.
"It's highly possible. There was some quite high waters in some of them, others were only just in. That detail hasn't come back yet, people are out there now," he said.
Mackle said there were about 140 evacuees, but some people with no damage to their properties had gone home.
In the nearby Hurunui District the rain has caused power outages, road closures and flooding.
Emergency Management Officer Allan Grigg says the district has recorded significant and varied rainfall over the past 24 hours - with totals ranging from about 30mm in some areas to more than 200mm in others.
Some 57 properties near Hanmer Springs were without power overnight.
Lines company MainPower said drones were being used to patrol and assess the network today.
Grigg says a bridge off Inland Kaikōura Road has lost its approaches, cutting off a small farming community, while freedom camping sites around Hanmer Springs, which were closed earlier, are now underwater.
He says Hanmer Springs township is largely "fully operational and okay", but with more heavy rain forecast later today, residents should avoid travelling and keep food and water supplies on hand.
Grigg says no evacuations have been needed so far but it has been a difficult storm.
"The big challenge with this rain event has been high variability and rainfall in different locations.
"So we've had as much as 80 or 90 mills difference between two locations, only a few kilometres away from each other. So it's been very, very challenging to maintain situational awareness of where the rain is falling...and the needs that area developing in the district."
Weather moves north
The weather has moved on to the lower North Island, where Metservice meteorologist Alec Holden said "it's just going to be quite wet and miserable" for Wellington and surrounding areas for the next couple of days.
South Wairarapa's deputy mayor Rob Taylor warned that the worst rainfall was yet to come for the already saturated region.
Taylor said the region's emergency operations centre was up and running in preparation.
"But clearly, the weather is expected to get much worse.
"The ground is already sodden so we're going to expect high levels of rainfall, more flooding and the closures that we already have are possibly going to increase over the next 24 hours."
