Several people are missing after a landslide at a campsite in the tourism hotspot of Mount Maunganui, south-east of Auckland.
The campsite has been evacuated, and emergency services are working to locate survivors.
Swathes of the North Island have been drenched, with the country's national weather service, MetService, issuing a rare red weather warning for a "threat to life" in several regions.
A separate landslide in Welcome Bay, also in the North Island, took out a home and killed two people.
Look back at our blog to see how the day's events unfolded.
[link to blog]