North Canterbury residents are assessing damage to homes and property after some of the worst flooding to hit Kaikōura in years.

State Highway 1 between Waipara in Canterbury and Ward in Marlborough remained closed this morning after severe flooding.

Video sent to chrislynchmedia.com shows the impact of high Conway River levels on State Highway 1 near Hawkswood in North Canterbury.

A contractor said there were hundreds of slips across the hills, and while water levels had dropped by about five metres since yesterday, there was still plenty of work to do.

Several major slips on the road are expected to take some time to clear.

Rain has eased around Kaikōura, but a Heavy Rain Watch remains in force until Thursday evening.

MetService meteorologist John Law said areas around the Kaikōura District had seen an intense amount of rain over the past 48 hours, with several stations inland of Kaikōura recording more than 300 millimetres.

The MetService station on the coast recorded 137 millimetres, more than twice its average July rainfall.

Law said the rain had caused numerous impacts across the region, including flooded rivers and closed roads.

He said while further rain was expected at a lower intensity, it would not take much to cause fresh problems.

“A station near Mt Fyffe has almost reached 400 millimetres since Monday,” Law said.

He said the event had brought an enormous amount of rain to a relatively dry part of the country.

Meanwhile, several roads in the Mackenzie District remain closed because of heavy snow.

Video from the area shows winter wonderland conditions, with officials warning motorists to keep up to date with the latest road closures on the NZTA website.

Law said coastal Otago had also seen more rain this morning and remained under a Heavy Rain Watch until this afternoon.

Inland Otago and South Canterbury are under a Heavy Snow Watch for the rest of Wednesday, mainly for areas above 700 metres, although snow is forecast to fall as low as 300 metres.

Several alpine passes also have Road Snowfall Warnings in place.

Law said the band of rain responsible for flooding around Kaikōura was moving north today.

Heavy Rain Warnings are in place for Wairarapa and the Ruahine Range through to the inland ranges of Hawke’s Bay.

Wairarapa has already seen rain related issues, with its warning running until 6am Thursday, while the warning for the Ruahine Range and inland Hawke’s Bay runs until the end of Thursday, although northern parts of Hawke’s Bay could still see heavy rain into Friday morning.

He said while the heaviest rain would fall over elevated areas, it would flow into rivers on the plains.

“To top it off we’ve even got southeasterly winds picking up through the Cook Strait today,” Law said.

A Strong Wind Watch covers areas around Cook Strait and Taranaki until Thursday evening.

Law said there was a high chance parts of the watch would be upgraded to an Orange Warning.

The current weather system is forecast to move away on Friday, with high pressure moving in from the west and bringing more settled weather through the weekend.

However, cold air around the South Island is expected to bring hard frosts for central areas from Friday morning, especially in places that have received snow.

Twizel has a forecast low of minus 7 degrees Celsius on Saturday morning.