Wild weather has hit the South Island with emergency services called to flooding and fallen trees, while snow has closed two state highways in Canterbury.
Tasman District Command Centre Senior Sergeant Stu Koefoed said civil defence in Okarito was dealing with flooding at the lagoon and in Nelson there was flooding on Whakatu Dr although the road remained clear on Saturday.
At Golden Downs a tree was down and blocking both lanes of Kerrs Hill Rd.
Mr Koefoed urged people to stay off the roads if at all possible with heavy rain due to lash the north and west of the South Island.
Rivers and streams could rise rapidly and driving conditions could become hazardous, he said. "If you don't need to go out, don't. Stay at home out of the rain.''
Further south, snow closed State Highway 8 (Twizel to Fairlie) and State Highway 80 (Aoraki/ Mt Cook to Ben Ohau) after midday.
NZTA said people intending to use these highways should postpone their journeys and check on their status.
As weekends go, it would be wet pretty much everywhere on Saturday - including in Wellington, where the British and Irish Lions take on the All Blacks in the second test.
Metservice said heavy rain warnings are in place for Westland, the headwaters of Canterbury lakes and rivers, Buller, Nelson, the Bryant and Richmond Ranges, Mt Taranaki, Bay of Plenty and Rotorua.
The fog that had been such a feature of last month stayed away from the main centres on Saturday morning, but Air New Zealand confirmed two flights from Hamilton had been cancelled as a flow-on effect of fog in the city on Friday. Passengers would be re-booked on alternative services.
Metservice meteorologist Angus Hines said a low pressure system was to blame for the expected soggy weekend.
"There's a tangle of fronts spiralling out of that low pressure system, which is stationary off the West Coast of the South Island. The fronts are bringing bands of rain to a lot of the country ... pretty much the whole country is going to get some kind of variety of rain.''
The working week was also looking messy. There may be a brief respite early in the week before a trough approaches the country from the Tasman Sea late on Wednesday.
