A tourist clings to a tree after getting cut off by the water.

Jayden Packer, front left and Kane Laurie run through the vineyard on the corner of The Coastal Highway and Redwood Road.

The Tahuanui Drive home that was evacuated after a slip came down from Stansell Ave.

Sergeant Stu Koefoed of Nelson Police, and senior Civil Defence personnel Jim Frater and Roger Ball at tonight's briefing on the flooding situation in Nelson, at the control headquarters in Richmond.

Senior Nelson City Council staff member Susan Coleman briefs a welfare team on the situation in Golden Bay at control headquarters in Richmond, Wednesday night.

Vicki Mathison feed hay to her miniature horses in a flooded paddock on Ranzau Road East.

The MetService's rain radar, from early this morning, shows the front moving off the South Island and resting over the North.

One of the slips on Aniseed Valley Road.

A road that has become a river in Pohara Valley, Nelson.

Mechanics Tim Eastwood, left, and Scott Bradley of Delta Line in action at the washout and destroyed footpath caused by the heavy rain and flooding on Marsden Valley Road, Nelson.

Jennie Warr of Grove Street helps Dean Merry of Nelson City Council to place sandbags along the street.

Wainui Bay farmer Mike Robertson surveys the damage. "If you let it get you down, you just turn it into a bigger job than it is.''

Tourists cling to a tree after getting cut off by the water.

Golden Bay farm manager Kevin Davis as at home with his wife and three sons, fearing for their lives, when a creek burst its banks.

A comparison between the normal flow of the Maitai River and the flooded flow.

A dam has collapsed in Golden Bay stranding between 20 and 30 people, as serious flooding in the Nelson region stretches emergency services.

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A state of emergency was been declared in the region this evening due to heavy flooding, which has battered the region all day.

The army is now on standby in the region, with the situation unlikely to let up until noon tomorrow.

Staff from the Nelson and Tasman councils and Civil Defence personnel have been briefed at the control centre at Tasman District Council headquarters in Richmond.

Many Nelson residents are bracing themselves for the worst, as high tide is scheduled for 1.20am.

The rain was expected to continue until noon tomorrow and the declaration would remain in place for seven days, Civil Defence said.

The declaration enables the police and other officials to request additional resources and call for the city to be evacuated.

There is "horrendous" flooding in the region, "slips all over the place" and road closures, police said.

"Water now is coming onto the road. Our house looks like going to be flooded when high tide is in just after mid-night if the rain doesn't stop," said Alice Fong and Gerard Malcolm of Riverside Drive.

Tasman Mayor Richard Kempthorne and other officials declared the state of emergency this evening.

"We've had a lot of steady rain last night, all day today and probably all night tonight. We have got small but numerous slips and some of them area affecting people's properties,'' Kempthorne said tonight.

One house had been evacuated by authorities. Another household had chosen to flee and emergency services were monitoring other properties, he said.

He said there was major flooding in the eastern part of Golden Bay.

"I think there could well be evacuations over there. Wherever there is likely to be water through houses they'll take them out to where they can stay warm and dry.''

Nelson City Mayor Aldo Miccio said emergency services were stretched.

"At this stage a state of emergency has been called as resources particularly police are stretched between Nelson and Golden Bay so it's reasonably tight. We need to start co-ordinating those emergency services.''

There had been so much rain that land has been weakened and there was a high risk of landslides, Civil Defence said.

People were urged to stay home and to take "extreme caution" when driving.

The worst affected areas were Nelson City and Eastern Golden Bay.

Collingwood Township and beyond is also cut off by slips.

There has been as much rain today as there usually is for the whole of December, MetService meteorologist Andy Downes said.

MetService meteorologist Daniel Corbett said earlier today the Nelson rain was already classified as a once-in-20-years flood and it could be upgraded to a once-in-50-years flood.

St John has had to move out of its Richmond ambulance station because of flooding.

Chris Haines, St John Regional Operations Manager South Island, said with the state of emergency it was still on stand by and working with other emergency services and Civil Defence as required.

It had a full response capability as it prepared for the hours ahead and its crews were now preparing for high tide.

"We are currently operating from our stations in Nelson and Motueka as well as the Saxton Lodge Motel in Stoke. It's too early to say what damage, if any, has been done to our ambulance station in Richmond,'' he said.

SLIPS CAUSE PROBLEMS

Major slips have caused extremely serious problems in Allan St above Nelson College on the Grampians.

In the early evening a large part of the steep hillside slipped. By 9.30pm police had ordered many residents to evacuate.

Rivers of mud stones and silt were slowing around several houses across the street and down towards Nelson College.

Residents were working feverously until nightfall to clear stormwater drains and divert water around their homes.

Unconfirmed reports said that one house was "gone''.

Residents were already blaming the Nelson City Council for felling a large number of trees on the hillside.

Police were cautioning the few Allen St residents in unaffected properties to be ready to leave at the slightest sign of further slips or rising waters around their homes.

South of Richmond the Brightwater Bridge on State Highway 6, has been closed due to flooding on the approaches to the Bridge.

About a dozen people were out well after nightfall shovelling mud and debris from the Ridgeway in Stoke.

A slip had come down from Kakenga Rd between 6pm and 7pm, causing gutters to block and threatening properties on the Ridgeway and Marsden Rd.

At least one home on Kakenga Rd had been affected by the slip and the Nelson Mail spoke to a neighbouring property owner who was evacuating his wife and children after 9pm just as a precaution.

"The mud has been going through the neighbour's place,'' he said.

Other residents were standing under umbrellas outside their homes, worried about what the night would bring. They believed a large section of land above had become unstable.

Marsden Rd residents Andrew and Amanda Stoddart were among those out shovelling debris from the road.

People had just got close to clearing up the first lot of debris that had come onto the road when a second lot hit, Mrs Stoddart said.

"I was just looking out and thinking the road is nice and clean. It just went boof and busted out. There's rock everywhere.''

Another Marsden Rd resident, Jacqui Page, was also shovelling debris from the street and wasn't expecting to get much sleep tonight. "You're not going to go and relax inside when it's like this. I've got the torch in my pocket.''

Marsden Valley Rd in Stoke was also closed tonight.

A large slip came down near Poormans Stream before 6pm. Nearby residents Carey and Dianne Burr and their daughter Alana saw it unfold.

"We heard this massive crack and watch it all fall down.'' Alana likened it to "this big sleigh''. Mr Burr, an engineer, estimates the slip to be about 150 cubic metres.

They were out with spades on the hill behind their property just before 9pm trying to stop spreading of a much smaller slip which had bought mud into their neighbour's place.

"It was almost like a sheet of water coming down the hill through the grass,'' Mr Burr said.

Neighbour Jack Shuttleworth said the smaller slip had gone through his fence and blocked drains. He's hoping the floodwater protection in a new neighbouring subdivision will work as it should.

"There's not a hell of a lot we can do. It's more exciting than Coronation Street,'' he said.

TOURISTS RESCUED

Two tourists have been described as "foolhardy" for entering a surging, raging river, and ending up having to be rescued.

A German man slipped into the river when he lost his footing and the bank gave way underneath him around midday today.

His friend, a 23-year-old Canadian went to his rescue, but both men ended up having to scramble up a tree in an attempt to escape the rising waters.

The pair waited 75 minutes until volunteer surf lifesavers came to their rescue after friends of the pair raised the alarm.

In a video taken of the rescue, volunteers from the Nelson Surf Life Saving Club were seen walking an inflatable dinghy toward the pair, who then hopped in the dinghy and were brought to safety as the lifesavers pulled it to the bank. The water appeared to be knee-deep.

Sergeant Steve Savage, of Nelson, said the German tourist had been "extremely foolhardy" and should not have been in the river.

Nelson rivers were running faster than usual and were "deceptively dangerous", Savage said.

CHAOS IN NELSON

Earlier today a driver on Nelson's Rocks Rd was "inches away" from being killed when tonnes of soil and a car-sized boulder slammed into the side of the vehicle.

Nelson lawyer Rick Farr said he saw about three to four tonnes of soil fall from the cliff above Rocks Rd and smash into the side of a car in front of him.

The impact pushed the car a metre into the air, he said.

"It was just luck it didn't crush it or push it into the water."

Farr said the car was luckily not too badly damaged, but it could have easily been a different story.

"It was so lucky. Another few inches ..."

Farr said he believed it was time something was done to the road as someone could get killed.

"It's just disgusting. It's been like this for the last 10 years I've been here."

Police said there were land slips "all over the place" and Civil Defence reported that trees had been uprooted.

Motueka police reported there had been a small slip on SH60 near the top of Takaka Hill but it was only about a metre on to the road, and a gum tree was reported to have fallen on the Moutere Highway near Whenua Iti Outdoors.

Constable Rob Ballantyne said with heavy rain forecast today, police expected more slips on Takaka Hill

ROAD CLOSURES

Several roads throughout the region are closed.

Maitai Valley Motor Camp resident Mike Sharp was unable to get his son to school today because the road was closed. He said there were a "few puddles around" and the river was up, but the high ground in the camp was fine.

The following roads are closed:

-Brightwater Bridge

-Marsden Valley Rd

-Abel Tasman Drive at Wainui Bay

-Pupu Valley Road

-Oxford St at Wensley

-Waimea West

-Paton, Ranzau and White Rds

-Telenius Rd

-SH60 at Watipu and near Maori Rd is closed to two wheel drive vehicles.

-Wainui Hill has one lane closed

-Matai Walkway is closed to pedestrians and cyclists

*Evacuation centres have been set up in Nelson at the Suburban Club on Tahunanui Drive and in Golden Bay at the Onetahua Marae in Pohara.