Sunny start across New Zealand to first weekend of school holidays

5 year old Bodhi Cribbens playing beach cricket with his Dad on Takapuna beach, Auckland. Photo / Sylvie Whinray
The first weekend of the school holidays will be bright and sunny for much of the country, but wet weather is forecast to return.
MetService forecaster Louis Fernandes said New Zealand should expect settled weather for the rest of the weekend and the start of next week.
“A ridge of high pressure that’s moving over New Zealand that always brings very settled weather.
Plenty of ☀ to go around over the next couple of days! pic.twitter.com/KoVmTW6yli
“There will be a few showers here and there but for the most part nothing that will put too much of a dampener on people’s holiday plans.”
He said the east of the country would experience the nicest weather for the start of the holiday period.
“For the South Island, Canterbury, all the way up to Nelson and Malborough are looking quite sunny and dry.
“For the North Island, almost everywhere is looking pretty good, but you’re really guaranteed sunshine and mild weather in the eastern parts. Gisborne down to Hawke’s Bay are going to be your best bets.”
Fernandes said temperatures wouldn’t be out of the ordinary for this time of year.
Whakatane is forecast to be the hottest place in New Zealand today reaching a high of 20C, while Tauranga and Napier are set to reach 18C.
Tomorrow, Masterton and Blenheim are forecast to reach a high of 21C and Hamilton, Palmerston North, Ashburton, and Whanganui are set to reach 20C.
However, by the middle of next week, bad weather will return to New Zealand.
Fernandes said the western parts of the South Island such as Buller to Fiordland would see increased rain.
“For the North Island, we are going to start seeing cloud increasing if you’re in Bay of Plenty, Auckland, Northland and even towards Taranaki,” he said.
“On Wednesday, we start to see a lot of wet weather spreading across all of New Zealand. The only areas, at this stage, that are looking to be mostly dry are Hawke’s Bay down to the Wairarapa and Gisborne.”
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