Wellington is in cleanup mode after Thursday's storm, with some roads still closed by slips.
The torrential rain forced one family to camp in their car after they were stranded on the wrong side of a flooded ford near Wellington.
Denise Clements and her daughters Pippa and Micah were due to drive out of the Rimutaka Forest Park in Wainuiomata on Thursday but were stranded by a flooded ford.
Ms Clements said the ford was high and moving swiftly, and the family didn't know how deep it was. They stayed in their car overnight, while the family they were camping with chose to brave the walk out.
Charlotte Hulme-Moir says she grabbed her kids and told them to hurry. "It was torrential rain, huge gusts of winds, just beginning to get dark."
Ms Hulme-Moir managed to call DOC from the hut - who got word to both womens' husbands. Pippa and Micah were happy to see their dad this morning after their unexpected adventure.
The families say the water has dropped considerably overnight but now there is a large amount of debris in the middle of the ford, so a digger will need to be brought in to clear that before they can get those cars back across.
It's another clean-up job for workers already busy across Wellington's northern suburbs. A slip covered both lanes on the top of Wadestown road, and vehicle damaged by a slip in Khandallah.
North of Wellington, raging rivers are receding - machinery has been submerged in the Manawatu River just south of Woodville. Kiwirail contractors say they ran out of time to shift it because the river rose so quickly.
And the Wellington home of a family Newshub spoke to on Thursday is still off-limits after a tree came crashing through their roof. But a one hundred-tonne crane will be brought in on Saturday to remove the tree.
Newshub.
