Source: Radio New Zealand
A Northland community member helping with flood evacuations on Friday night says it was the worst weather he had seen so far this year.
The region has been in cleanup mode this weekend after intense flooding, causing slips and surface damage in communities throughout the Far North and the Bay of Islands.
Though the worst is likely over, MetService is currently forecasting rain and strong winds for Northland throughout Sunday.
Mita Harris leads the Kerikeri Cadet Unit, and with his military-grade Unimog, can access flooded properties that others cannot. A former reservist himself, he has owned the vehicle for around a decade, and has been able to help evacuate households and lift supplies.
RNZ/Tim Collins
He says this week saw the worst floods in the Far North so far this year.
“It was fast, it wasn’t slow, thank goodness for that,” Harris said. “If an event kept going like this for three or four days, we’d be in serious trouble.”
He said he had spent the week preparing the vehicle, following forecasts and keeping in close contact with low-lying areas where he had seen extreme flooding in the past. By the evening they were in the thick of it.
Northland flooding near Kerikeri – 27 March 2026 RNZ/Tim Collins
On a crumbled gravel road in a paddock in Waihou Valley, with flattened shrubbery and scattered debris everywhere, Harris said the high tide coupled with intense levels of rainwater had rendered the whole area submerged.
The area began to flood at around lunchtime on Thursday, rising with the tide at around 4pm until 10pm, he said.
“It just looked like a rippling moving desert, it’s ripped up the tarseal and just carried stuff off, it’s a huge volume that came in with a high tide as well which pushed everything out.”
Farming households in the area who depend on those roads were effectively stranded, though Harris was occasionally able to access them on the Unimog. One farming family had been completely cut off after part of their road collapsed into a stream underneath.
“On the Unimog, those levels were up to the bonnet, which is six foot two (1.88m).”
Northland flooding near Kerikeri – 27 March 2026 RNZ/Tim Collins
Northland Regional Council said 410 cubic metres of floodwaters were flowing down the Awanui River every second, a record.
In a statement, Regional Councillor Joe Carr credited the upgrade Awanui flood scheme from stopping communities like Kaitaia from an outcome comparable to the infamous 1958 floods, which recorded nearly half as much floodwater.
“This was an extraordinary event with very intense hourly rainfall which tested the scheme to its limits,” he said.
“There was some costly flooding and associated evacuations as stopbanks did overtop both upstream and downstream of State Highway 1 Bridge Waikuruki and in the lower Whangatane Spillway, all of which are works in progress, but overall the $15 million-plus, multi-year scheme upgrade performed very well.”
Northland flooding near Kerikeri – 27 March 2026 RNZ/Tim Collins
Harris felt as though there was very little that could be done to future-proof the communities in the actual floodplains.
“The infrastructure has been like this for a long time since they started putting roads in off the state highway in the ’30s, ’40s and ’50s.
“Technology’s giving us some early warnings about when these events are coming, so when to prepare… so families will do that, but the infrastructure, it is what it is.”
Northland flooding near Kerikeri – 27 March 2026 RNZ/Tim Collins
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
