In additon to the MetService severe thunderstorm warning issued earlier this afternoon for Auckland, Coromandel and the Waikato, the MetService has issued a further update saying it is “ideal thunderstorm weather” in Auckland.

Auckland is experiencing very high humidity and MetService meteorologist Georgina Griffiths says “Today and tomorrow brings us perfect thunderstorm weather.”

The severe thunderstorm watch is in place until 10pm Thursday and Civil Defence Controller Rachel Kelleher says people need to be “really vigilant” about weather conditions. While the thunderstorm and any potential flooding and slips are expected to be very localised, Kelleher says residents still need to be prepared as ground conditions mean any downpour could create issues. The weather is expected to be better over the weekend but more rain is expected on Monday.

Auckland council is urging people to consider flood impacts when planning long weekend activities.

Council chief executive Jim Stabback says that while the damage assessments and clean-up of Auckland, including open spaces and community facilities, is progressing well, Aucklanders should be aware that there’s still a lot to be done and visit the council website for the most up to date information on what parks, community facilities, beaches and roads are affected by flooding and should be avoided.

“We need Aucklanders to consider their personal safety this weekend. Our emergency services are already stretched, and we don’t want people to put themselves in danger, particularly in the remote areas of our regional parks,” said Stabback.

As we reported this afternoon, according to the Swimsafe website, every single Auckland beach has a “do not swim” black cross next to it. A reminder to check that and based on the current state of affairs, do not plan to go swimming.

The sun might be out, but Aucklanders are being warned another deluge could hit the city as soon as tonight.

The city has been in a state of emergency since late Friday evening which is not due to expire until later this week.

But while the weather has improved dramatically over the past 24, MetService has issued a severe thunderstorm warning for  Auckland, Great Barrier Island, Coromandel Peninsula and Waikato. Eastern parts of Auckland, meanwhile, will be under a high rain watch from 11pm tonight.

It has, to put it mildly, been a wet one. After record rainfall caused major flooding events and stormwater issues, Auckland is in crisis. Roads, suburbs, parks and homes have been overwhelmed with floodwater, much of which is “blackwater,” meaning it contains faecal matter and other sewage contaminants.

So here’s a reminder worth listening to: don’t go for a swim.

That’s according to the Swimsafe website, which shows there’s not an unsullied beach in Auckland worth trying to take a quick dip at right now. Swimsafe reports every beach from Bucklands to Bethells, and Blockhouse to Browns Bay, has a giant black cross next to it. That includes Waiheke, Whangaparaoa and Waiwera.

Those crosses mean one thing and one thing only: please don’t swim. If you do, you’re at risk of gastroenteritis (that’s diarrhoea and vomiting), skin infections and eye infections, warns the Auckland Regional Public Health Service. It also reminds people not to eat anything that has come into contact with floodwater, including garden greens and shellfish.

If you need more info, here’s The Spinoff’s explainer on why it’s important to listen to Swimsafe’s warnings. Beaches could be contaminated by everything from wees and poos to nasties like diesel, pathogens and heavy metal run-off from aluminium roofs. Higher density housing and population growth is contributing to this problem, and the past week’s record rainfall is still being pumped out of buildings and down drains so it’s going to take more than just a few high tides to wash all of this away.

The weather forecast for the next seven days is for more rain, so it may pay to pack your togs, and your summer dreams, away in the cupboard for a while.

The government has unlocked an additional $700,000 in flood relief for regions most badly hit by recent bad weather.

That includes Auckland, Waikato, Coromandel, Northland and the Bay of Plenty, with most of the money going toward providing unskilled and semi-skilled jobs for local people who can support the clean-up effort. The remaining $200,000 will be allocated to rural support trusts.

“The damage to farms, homes, roads, and bridges across the regions affected is extensive and no doubt will take a long time to be fully assessed. By making this funding available, local councils and other authorised agencies can hire job seekers to help,” said deputy prime minister Carmel Sepuloni.

Meanwhile, prime minister Chris Hipkins has been in Auckland today, meeting once again with mayor Wayne Brown and local businesses impacted by the floods.

The twitter account for the mayor of Auckland, Wayne Brown, has posted and deleted an image showing the prime minister, Chris Hipkins, pointing at Brown, who stares back in a tableau that at first glance appears combative. The tweet, which came with a caption describing a meeting between the two men this morning focused on the response to Auckland floods, was quickly replaced with another in which the prime minister appears to be attentively listening to the mayor.

The deleted tweet:

The replacement tweet:

The mayor’s Twitter account lurched into life after the Friday floods, with posts interchangeably in the first and third person. Another, posted yesterday quoted deputy mayor Desley Simpson as saying “she is devastated” about inadvertently describing Brown as “part of the problem”, ending with an attribution “DS”.  The photographs join a rich catalogue of pictures in which Mayor Wayne Brown meets people.

The Princess Royal, Princess Anne, will visit New Zealand later this month, taking in the sights of Palmerston North.

Prime minister Chris Hipkins announced the royal will attend the 100th anniversary celebrations for the NZ Army’s Royal New Zealand Corps of Signals, of which she is Colonel in Chief. These will be held at Linton Military Camp in Palmerston North.

“It’s terrific that Her Royal Highness will be able to connect with past and present members of the Corps and acknowledge the importance of signallers within New Zealand Defence Force operations over the last 100 years,” said Hipkins.

Princess Anne, who will be accompanied by her husband Vice Admiral Sir Tim Laurence, will also travel to Wellington for a wreath laying and Christchurch, where she will rededicate the war memorial at Cathedral Square.

It’s been 13 years since the princess last visited Aotearoa.

King Charles has sent a message to New Zealand following the floods that hit the top of the North Island over the past few days.

In a letter shared via the governor general, the monarch said he had been following the news with the “deepest concern” and wanted to pass on his condolences and sympathy to the families of those who had died. “Our special thoughts are with the many others whose livelihoods have been so terribly impacted by these devastating floods,” the King said.

The letter continued: “I have long admired the strength and resourcefulness of New Zealanders, and my most heartfelt prayers are with all those who are supporting the response and recovery efforts to help people repair or restore their homes and businesses.”

The message from the King concluded with a few words in te reo: “Kia kaha, kia māia, kia manawanui.”

New figures reveal just how much living costs increased for households in 2022.

Last year was dominated politically by the cost of living crisis, which has carried over into 2023 with inflation sky high and a looming recession on the horizon.

According to Stats NZ, the cost of living for the average household was up 8.2% in the 12 months to December last year. When broken down to account for different household groups, no one was left unscathed. There was an 8.1 point rise in costs for Māori households, 7.4% for superannuitants and 6.9% for beneficiaries.

Highest-spending households reported a 9.4% bump – the largest overall – while lowest-spending households still experienced a 7.4% rise in costs.

“Higher prices for housing, food, and transport were the main contributors to the increase across all household groups,” said Stats NZ’s consumer prices manager James Mitchell.

Auckland mayor Wayne Brown has apologised for his “drongo” comment about journalists, but defended his decision to stop other councillors speaking out on the night of the devastating floods.

In an interview with Newshub’s AM this morning, Brown admitted he shouldn’t have called the media drongos, adding that he will never be a “smooth-talking politician”.

He added: “I do need to improve my communication… I probably shouldn’t have said the word drongo to a couple of friends of mine but I was just explaining why I couldn’t turn up to tennis that particular day.”

The fact it was made public was regrettable, said Brown, and he recognised the role the media played during an emergency.

Meanwhile, leaked emails yesterday showed councillors were told to stop publicly communicating on Friday, with the mayor requesting “all communications remain clear and consistent, we need to speak with one voice”.

That was criticised by some councillors who said it amounted to a gag-order. But Brown told Newshub that region-wide communications should come from the mayor’s office. “I’ve encouraged local members to be vocal within their community as much as they want and about their local issues and fed those back into us,” he said.

Brown has been reluctant to speak to many media outlets since the emergency broke out. He said he accepted Newshub’s request for comment because it was the first time there had been enough of a break in the weather for him to have spare time. “There’s been an awful lot of emergency coordinating to be doing and there just hasn’t been time to deal with some of these issues. I know it’s important that i have a good working relationship with the media, but my time has been grabbed with emergency situations.”

The city and his office were now focused on the clean-up and preparing for any future downpours, said Brown.

Also during today’s interview, Brown said he had been made aware of people in apartment buildings, including some elderly, that had become isolated during flood-related damage. “Just yesterday it came to our attention that there were a number of people in multi-storey apartment buildings who are kind of, semi-isolated because, although there’s no damage to the building, there are over 200 lifts not working in Auckland city and some are elderly people who are up quite a few storeys and that had been missed by the welfare and the emergency people,” Brown said.

ANZ has said it will drop home loan interest rates by up to 55 basis points. It comes after yesterday’s employment data was released which showed that unemployment rose to 3.4% in the December, and pay did not rise as much as some economists had expected.

Bank economists now expect the official cash rate to increase by 50 basis points, rather than the 75 basis points previously forecast. BusinessDesk’s Rebecca Howard notes (paywalled) that’s still a hefty lift and “hardly a respite”. More than 400,000 New Zealanders are now behind on credit repayments.

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It’s a popular policy – and we are in an election year after all – but the government’s decision to extend the fuel tax cuts until the end of June has provoked a fair amount of criticism since being announced.

Greenpeace told Today FM that while the government had good intentions, we are in a climate crisis, and subsidising fossil fuels was the wrong approach. “They could have given free fares – at the moment we need all the incentives we can get to encourage people to use public transport. That would have been a more positive and consistent step given the times that we’re in,” said spokesperson  Christine Rose.

Economists like Brad Olsen seemed to agree. He labelled the extension “extremely dumb” in an interview with Newshub and said it amounted to “tax cuts for the rich”. Even broadcasters like Rachel Smalley and, yes, Mike Hosking seemed to agree that this policy was helping wealthy New Zealanders who don’t need the assistance.

So what does the finance minister Grant Robertson have to say, bearing in mind he ruled out further extensions at the end of last year? Speaking to Newstalk ZB, Robertson said extending the policy until June 30 brought it to the end of the financial year. “It is an effective and efficient way to deliver for New Zealanders at a trying time,” said Robertson.

Petrol prices were lower now than they were at the start of the Ukraine war, said Hosking, so the rationale for extending the cuts was no longer valid. Robertson said that oil prices were volatile and setting an end date or price was tough. “From a government perspective we want to make sure we’re helping New Zealanders through,” he said.

On whether or not it amounted to tax cuts for the rich, Robertson said that analysis deserved a closer look. He said that the cost of things like petrol for lower income houses was “a fixed cost” as some people needed to drive to get to their jobs. But, he added, “I appreciate some people will have a different view.”

Robertson said while forecasts for the year suggested a recession for New Zealand, there was a “decent chance” of us getting through it.