South Islanders are heading for a mostly sunny Easter Saturday, while cloud and heavy rain is putting a dampener on celebrations in the country’s north.
Temperatures are also dipping on the approach to winter, with Pukaki Airport in the South Island’s Mackenzie district dropping to -2.9C overnight and Dunedin Airport hitting -2.3C.
Forecaster Niwa’s “emojicast” shows that today sunshine is tipped for nearly all the South Island, apart from the Nelson and Blenheim areas.
The entire North Island, meanwhile, is blanketed in cloud, apart from Wellington.
In the country’s east, heavy rain is also hitting flood-damaged Gisborne and Hawke’s Bay where MetService has heavy rain warnings and watches in place.In the South Island, Christchurch is set for a high of 15C today before experiencing some showers on Easter Sunday and Monday for highs of 17C and 21C.
Dunedin is still a chilly 6C as of 8am this morning and can expect fine skies and a high of 16C today.
Isolated showers and highs of 16C and 18C are then forecast for the next two long weekend days.Holidaymakers in Queenstown are waking to fine, beautiful skies but also a frost and 8am temperature of less than 2C.
That should climb to 17C today and tomorrow before reaching 20C on Easter Monday with some rain.
