Autumn boon for Wairarapa

Farmers in Wairarapa say they are celebrating the best autumn they can remember - with rain, temperatures and prices just right.
April saw generous rainfall and warm temperatures, breaking a longstanding near-drought and seeing pasture levels take off.
Now warm and wet has been followed by warm and dry, with Wairarapa being almost the only region in the country to avoid excessive rain in May.
"Most people say it's the best autumn they can remember," Federated Farmers president Paul McGill said yesterday.
Rainfall at Waiorongomai was 93 per cent of normal, at Tauherenikau 68 per cent, and at Tinui 39 per cent, according to Greater Wellington Regional Council figures.
Those totals compare to a record wet for Nelson and rain anywhere from 60 to 120 per cent throughout the North Island except Wairarapa.
Mr McGill said the April rain was "good to get things going", soil moisture levels were fine and there was now plenty of feed around. "We've gone from famine to feast."
Plenty of feed about meant higher lamb prices, Mr McGill said.
"It feels like a spring market."
Niwa climate scientist Georgina Griffiths said yesterday Wairarapa was "pretty much the only dry region" in the country in May.
"The rest of New Zealand was sopping wet ... you guys got a bit lucky, I think," Ms Griffiths said.
Ms Griffiths said many of the fronts bringing rain around the North Island were northerlies, which did not bring as much rain to eastern areas.
That did not stop Gisborne suffering some heavy rainfall during the month.
For the first time, Niwa is now forecasting normal rainfall for winter across much of New Zealand, including Wairarapa.
Ms Griffiths said temperatures for winter were forecast to be above average in Wairarapa, largely due to sea temperatures around the lower North Island being 0.5C higher than usual.