In the last 24 hours about 88,000 lightning strikes have been detected, with around a quarter over land, MetService says.
The strikes occurred while a Severe Thunderstorm Watch was covering most of the North Island, with the thunderstorms starting just before midnight.
MetService meteorologist Alwyn Bakker told 1News the thunderstorms were concentrated along a “big rain band going across the country” overnight.
In Auckland, many people on social media said they had been woken up by the thunder and lightning.
Bakker said in the hour to 3am “pretty much all” of the region’s weather stations had recorded their maximum rainfall rate — some over 15mm and others over 20mm.
He remarked it had “generally pretty wet for everyone in the North Island” with some stations in western regions, Taranaki and Wellington recording similar rainfall amounts in an hour.
In terms of how the rest of the weekend was shaping up, Bakker said for most of the North Island the weather would “actually be pretty nice” as most places would be sunny.
However, the situation in the South Island was “not quite so nice”, with more traditional wet in the west, while it would be a bit drier in the east.
Bakker said it would be “quite damp for the West Coast” today.
People were advised to stay up to date with the latest weather watches and warnings on the MetService website.