File photo. Photo: Pixabay
Cooler temperatures and rain are on the way for the South Island and the lower North Island, bringing some respite from the summer heat.
MetService issued rain watches on Sunday for Westland between Haast and Otira as well as the headwaters of the Otago lakes as a cold front moves up the country.
The front will bring heavy rain to the north of Mount Taranaki early on Monday morning and a rain watch is in place there too.
And in the Canterbury high country, MetService was advising that northwest winds may approach severe gales in exposed places to midnight tonight.
MetService meteorologist Clare O'Connor said rain can be expected across most of the country on Monday but not a significant amount.
"For the rest of the North Island there will be some more rain along the west coast and the southwest of the North Island so through Wellington and Kāpiti Coast as well, those are not looking to be watch or warning criteria".
But warm, humid temperatures will stick around the central and upper North Island next week despite the rain forecast.
"It is going to stay humid, warm up there for what is looking like the rest of the week with overnight temperatures around 19 or 20 degrees," O'Connor said.
As for the best place to be next week, MetService is predicting the West Coast of the South Island will come out on top.
"Once the rain does pass through today and the early hours of tomorrow, it will be finer and sunnier through there as well as the rest of the South Island as we look ahead to Tuesday.
"But it won't be the same temperatures as we were having throughout the last week," O'Connor said.
On Saturday some parts of the country were warmer than the tropics, as temperatures skyrocketed above 30 degrees in many places.
MetService meteorologist Tuporo Marsters said that Hanmer Springs in Canterbury took the top spot at 34C.
Dunedin, Blenheim and Oxford also reached 31C, and heat alerts were in place for many places across the country.
Marsters said a warm northwesterly flow of air coming around from the tropics drove temperatures up.