Heavy rain over the last four days has more than doubled August’s long-term average rainfall of 99 millimetres.

From 8am Thursday to 8am Monday, the Cook Islands Meteorological Services Nikao station recorded 211.8mm of rain. From Sunday to Monday there was 38.2mm of rain.

Last week’s rainfall has brought a huge relief to Rarotonga’s water authority following below 50 per cent water level readings at some intakes on the island.

Walter Tuarae-White from To Tatou Vai said the heavy rain over the weekend was a welcome relief and would help “recharge” the islands groundwater.

“Some areas have seen an increase in water pressure that have been lacking in the past few weeks,” Tuarae-White said.

“We still encourage our community to be mindful of their water usage and to especially repair leaks, faulty taps and the like.

“There is still ongoing high water consumption on the island and we all need to use water responsibly.”

Cook Islands Met Services director Arona Ngari said thunderstorms were still forecast for Rarotonga.

Ngari said the likelihood of thunderstorms increased for Wednesday and Thursday due to a frontal system moving to the east of the Southern Cook Islands.

Meanwhile, Motu Villas manager Tim Meyer took out his paddle board in flooded Teimurimotia Park in Titikaveka yesterday. 

Meyer said the field was around 30 to 40 centimetres deep and thought it would remain like that until tomorrow.

Taking out the paddleboards put a smile on some of Motu Villas holiday guests.

“The guests came down, had a look and had a good laugh with us. We turned this negative into a positive, so that’s what this whole thing was about.

“You’re always trying to give an experience for the guests, if you can take a negative like this, weeks of bad weather, and turn it into something fun then it’s always a good thing.”