“Auckland is lucky … to have got off relatively unscathed.” That’s what Auckland mayor Wayne Brown had to say yesterday on the subject of Cyclone Vaianu.

Other areas were not so fortunate. The cyclone left 14,000 New Zealanders without power. In Gisborne, rainfall flooded their wastewater system and the plant in Coromandel was unable to “process the volume of wastewater”.

There is further flooding in Paeroa, where citizens are being reminded not to walk through floodwaters, and as of Monday morning, state highways remained closed in Tairāwhiti, the Bay of Plenty, and the Coromandel.

Made with the support of NZ On Air.