Forty-three Fonterra farmers cut off by the road slips following flooding in the Tasman District have been told to spill milk once their vats reach capacity.

Up to 600mm of rain fell in 48 hours from Tuesday in the region causing widespread flooding – but mainly in urban areas.

A Fonterra spokesman says the Golden Bay farmers will be spilling milk into their effluent systems until State Highway 60, is repaired.

Repairing the road is one of the top priorities for the Tasman District Council and it is believed the repairs could take anywhere between one and three days.

Federated Farmers Golden Bay president Graham Ball says the weather has cleared and that there’s not too much damage on the area’s farms.

"Everyone will just be ascertaining the damage that’s been around the farms and there’s not too much.

"There’s a bit of the silting on a few farms but we’ll manage that I think. There’s been offers of feed, but we’ll just have to wait and see whether farmers will need that or not."      

He says the main concern is how soon State Highway 60 will be repaired, and he has heard it could be within 24 hours. If that is the case, farmers will only have to spill milk once.   

"The sun is shining and things are looking up now I think, as soon as we get that road, we’ll be in business again."

Civil Defence says the flooding in Nelson was a one in 100 year event.

The bad weather also impacted on Rural Delivery services – New Zealand Post says 80 percent of RD1 services in Takaka will not get through.