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.
[link to blog]
