Wet stuff returning over the weekend

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

Travelling at the weekend? You might want to check two things — the weather and fuel prices.

After a few days of mostly clear blue and sunny skies, most Gisborne-East Coast residents will be feeling a little chirpier.

However, as they say, all good things must come to an end and so it is that the latest weather forecasts see a return to the damp side.

MetService says a low will hook around East Cape over Saturday and Sunday, bringing rain to the top end of the district first and then to the eastern coast.

The outlook is for rain, some of it heavy, developing before dawn on Saturday.

There will be fresh north-easterlies, easing in the evening, while Sunday is forecast to be cloudy, with rain or showers, and easterlies turning southerly.

Monday sees occasional rain, clearing to partly cloudy.

After the removal of the fuel subsidy, motorists considering travelling away from the district might want to check fuel prices ahead of their journey, to save themselves a shock.

Using the Gisborne price of 91, travellers may find prices elsewhere having an impact.

As of Thursday afternoon, using Gaspy, the three cheapest prices in Gisborne were $2.519 at Allied Awapuni; $2.537 at Gull; and $2.539 at Waitomo.

At Wairoa, 91 was listed as $2.709, while further south at Napier and Hastings prices varied by as much as 60 cents per litre.

At Napier the cheapest seemed to be $2.519, while around Hastings, NID Self Service posted a price of $2.376 and Waitomo Mahora listed 91 at $2.419.

Travelling north, Opotiki had Gull selling 91 at $2.637, while Whakatane Gull was at $2.577.

Further along the Bay of Plenty coast at Matata, GAS had 91 at $$2.42.

In Tauranga/Mount Maunganui, a multiplicity of service stations offered prices, again varying by as much as 60 cents or more.

It is very much a case of traveller beware.