“We are working as fast as we can, using a number of different methods ... visiting homes, alternative accommodation, evacuation centres and other locations.”

More than 100 police have been assigned to the task.

Helping the rescue effort are Australian search and rescue teams, and from this weekend, a Fijian crew.

The 33-strong team of defence, fire and disaster management personnel will hitch a ride to New Zealand with the visiting delegation currently in Nadi for the Pacific Islands Forum.

“It just makes sense,” Deputy Prime Minister Carmel Sepuloni said.

“There’s room on the plane ... and so this has worked out. It’s a win-win.

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“We’re going to warmly receive those people with their expertise.”

Also in Fiji, Papua New Guinea formalised an offer to send a defence force platoon to help with the clean-up.

Foreign Minister Justin Tkatchenko said Prime Minister James Marape was “very keen” to assist but New Zealand was yet to accept the offer.

The country is also thinking beyond the immediate clean-up, launching a new immigration pathway to help rebuild after the cyclone and last month’s Auckland floods.

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The “recovery visa” will fast-track the applications of much-needed workers in specialist industries, following a similar playbook to the 2011 Christchurch earthquakes.

More than 10,000 workers arrived in Canterbury in the years after the quake, which killed 185 people and destroyed large parts of the South Island’s biggest city.

Immigration Minister Michael Wood said application fees would be wiped and visas would be processed within a week.

“The visa covers the mix of workers needed for clean-up and recovery, including construction workers,” he said.

“In the short term, we are likely to need experts such as insurance assessors, infrastructure and utilities engineers and technicians, heavy machinery operators and debris removal workers to support the experts we’ve already got in the country.”

AAP