It's official, Otago really is the sunny South.
The province dominated the good news section of the national weather statistics for December, with Dunedin the sunniest and driest of New Zealand's six main centres.
Figures released by Niwa yesterday, showed not only did Dunedin have its driest December on record, with just 9mm of rain, but it was the driest city by far - Christchurch received 61mm and Wellington 190mm.
The figures also showed the city recorded 221 hours of sunshine, 36 more than second-placed Christchurch.
The region also recorded the highest temperature in the country - 31.3degC in Alexandra on the 13th. And the lowest - -0.6degC at Ranfurly on the 18th.
Other towns to better rainfall records were Balclutha, Queenstown and Alexandra.
Balclutha recorded its lowest rainfall of 6mm (9% of normal), and its highest sunshine hours of 276 (156% of normal) since 1964.
Queenstown recorded 9mm, 15% of its usual rainfall, lowest since records began in 1871.
Alexandra recorded its highest daily minimum temperature of 18.3degC on the 12th.
Fiordland also bettered many December records, with Milford Sound recording its lowest rainfall with 83mm (13% of normal), its highest mean maximum of 22.3degC, 4.7degC higher than normal and its second-highest extreme maximum 26.4degC.
