One person is feared dead and hundreds have been evacuated after rain-swollen rivers flooded parts of New Zealand and dozens of small earthquakes contributed to mudslides.
Bad weather also hit Australia where fierce winter storms dumped a blanket of snow over thousands of kilometres of farmland, disrupting electricity supplies.
In New Zealand's Bay of Plenty region on the east coast of North Island, civil defence authorities declared a state of emergency and evacuated 1,500 people in the past day after nine inches of rain fell in 48 hours, sending rivers spilling over banks.
Whakatane District Council spokeswoman Diane Turner
One woman was believed killed when her house was hit by a mudslide near the small town of Opotiki, about 160 miles southeast of the country's largest city of Auckland. Rescuers have been unable to reach the area to confirm the death.
Rivers were still overflowing their banks in some places, forcing new evacuations and the emergency would remain in force for some days, according to Whakatane District Council spokeswoman Diane Turner.
"There are a large number who won't be going home for a while," she said. "This area still looks like a large swimming pool."
Levels of many rivers were starting to stabilise and the Meteorological Service lifted its heavy rain warning for the region and was forecasting dry weather.
Exacerbating the risk of landslides, the region has been hit by a series of earthquakes measuring up to 5.4 on the Richter scale in the past 24 hours.