Day-break will reveal whether a Coromandel boating club has been lost to a storm surge

The Mercury Bay Boating Club's commodore says the building is in danger - after part of the waterfront boundary on Whitianga's Buffalo Beach, washed away.

There are fears the late night high-tide, super-charged by ex-tropical Cyclone Hale , may dangerously erode the remaining coastline.

The clubhouse was behind New Zealand's first bid to contest the America's Cup in the 1980s.

NZ Herald reporter Lynley Ward says the commodore yesterday pleaded for special powers, to place concrete blocks on the coast.

He says it would have stopped the sea from eating into the land - but the Thames Coromandel District Council did not deem it an emergency situation.

Heavy Rain Warnings hang over the Coromandel, Gisborne, Hawke's Bay, eastern Wairarapa and the Tararua Range.

Tairawhiti is in a local state of emergency and is facing wide spread flooding, road closures, power cuts and slips.