A paddleboarder surfs down Gill St in New Plymouth.

Surfing moved from the ocean to streets of New Plymouth on Saturday after the central business district was flooded and roads turned into rivers.

About 1pm heavy rain caused rapid flooding, with the water rising high enough to sweep surfer Logan Giene on a paddleboard down Gill St.

Giene, the owner of Escape Coffee, donned his wetsuit and paddleboard and hit the surf because he thought 'why not have fun in the torrential rain?'

SIMON O'CONNOR/STUFF Within an hour of Logan Gieni's street surfing antics the sun was out and there was little evidence of flooding at all.

"It was almost coming in the building, and there was enough water that, I don't know, I just thought it would be funny," he said.

"I tried a surf board to start, and the water wasn't falling fast enough so we got out the paddleboard."

Giene rode the Gill St water multiple times, gaining great feedback from passersby.

SIMON O'CONNOR/STUFF The New Plymouth CBD was hit by flooding on Saturday, with multiple shop sustaining flooding damage.

"Everybody was loving it, everybody in the cars was loving it," he said.

Giene stopped to give way at Liardet Street, but said there was so much water, he could have crossed the road and kept going.

As a result of the flooding firefighters were called to multiple jobs across the district.

SIMON O'CONNOR/STUFF A car gets a clean at a flooded intersection.

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Did you get caught in the flooding? Send your pics and stories to taranakinewsdesk@fairfaxmedia.co.nz

New Plymouth's mall Centre City was also flooded with one shopper filming the moment the stairwell to the bottom floor was turned into a waterfall.

SIMON O'CONNOR/STUFF Firefighters pump water from a property in Lemon St.

Amit Sami, the franchise owner of Mister Minit in Centre City, said when he first saw the water gushing down the stairs he thought it was an attraction.

"I was in the middle of serving a customer, and that's when it all started, that sound, like a waterfall sound," Sami said.

"At first I thought it was some type of demonstration, then it started getting worse and everyone was backing off."

1 of 9 SIMON O'CONNOR/STUFF Some of Best 4 Less' goods were washed away. 2 of 9 SIMON O'CONNOR/STUFF A car gets a free clean by driving through a flooded intersection. 3 of 9 SIMON O'CONNOR/STUFF Logan Gieni surfed down Gill Street on his paddleboard at the peak of the flooding. Within an hour of his stunt the sun was out and the water had subsided. 4 of 9 SIMON O'CONNOR/STUFF Fireifghters pump water from a house on Lemon St that sustained some flooding outside. 5 of 9 SIMON O'CONNOR/STUFF A house on Lemon St sustained some flooding outside. 6 of 9 SIMON O'CONNOR/STUFF A car drives through a flooded street in New Plymouth. 7 of 9 SIMON O'CONNOR/STUFF Best 4 Less, on Devon St, almost had water coming in its front door. 8 of 9 SIMON O'CONNOR/STUFF The drains were overflowing and water spilled onto the footpaths during the flooding. 9 of 9 SIMON O'CONNOR/STUFF You needed gumboots to walk around the CBD in New Plymouth because the footpaths were flooded.

Sami soon realised the water that was disappearing through the escalators had to be going somewhere - his bulk room.

"When I opened the door it was all flooded," he said. "I literally freaked out."

A spokeswoman for the mall said staff were now doing all they could to clean up the shopping centre.

Lani Smillie / Hannah Parker Flooding around New Plymouth city centre.

While Centre City is open and trading, a number of retailers were affected by the flooding including Whitcoulls, 2Degrees, Vodafone, Cotton On Body, Factorie, EB Games, Pascoe Jewellers and Muffin Break. These stores will progressively open as the water is dried out.

New Plymouth National MP Jonathan Young had been at the gym when the rain hit and took photos of the water rising up over the kerb and onto the footpath on Gill St outside the Centre City Mall.

"I got soaked," he said.

Jonathan Young Intense downpours in New Plymouth have resulted in a number of flooding related callouts for firefighters.

"You couldn't get in or out of your car without getting soaked. When the cars were driving down Gill St it looked like they were floating the water was so high."

On Devon Street East water poured through Ella Nails and Beauty and onto the street.

Manager Tiara Popata was with a client when she noticed a "big puddle" on the carpet. She assumed someone had spilt something.

Jonathan Young Jonathan Young had been at the gym when the rain hit.

"But then it slowly progressed to be huge," she said.

"It started flooding next door, it busted through the wall, and it's all come through from around the back and underneath the walls."

The downpour also left a Lemon Street home sitting in around 25,000 litres of water.

supplied Bulkeley Tce In new Plymouth was hit hard.

New Plymouth West Volunteer Brigade Station Officer Scott Hetherington said the water had flooded the home's basement.

"It's gone halfway up the back door," Hetherington said.

Firefighters pumped the water out of the home and Hetherington said the day had been full on with flooding related callouts.

supplied Cars had to battle through water 30 centimetres deep in places around New Plymouth.

"We've been pretty busy, and this is our, third call or fourth call, and there's other truck that are out at the moment," he said.

The Taranaki Regional Council's website said from 4am to 2pm almost 50 millimetres had fallen at the monitoring site at New Plymouth's Brooklands Zoo since 12am Saturday. About 30mm of that was between 12pm and 2pm.

When the rain stopped about 2pm the water quickly subsided and the blue sky came out, leaving little evidence of flooding at all.