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Thousands flocked to the beach for a hot and sunny Boxing Day - if they could resist the sales or the demands of children wanting to spend Christmas cash.
And more of the same classic summer weather is forecast for most of the top half of the North Island today, although water temperatures are reportedly still catching up. Prospects look more mixed for tomorrow and Monday but brighten up again for Tuesday.
New Year's Eve may be shaping up as a scorcher for many.
The sun reigned throughout most of the upper North Island yesterday and Aucklanders could enjoy a mostly cloudless day with light winds and a pleasantly warm 23C at 3pm. The only dampener was a few showers scattered around Tauranga.
Mission Bay was a magnet for beach-goers, while in Northland, Russell Neill, of the Mangawhai Heads Volunteer Lifeguard Service, estimated at mid-afternoon that up to 500 people were on the beach.
It was a beautiful, relaxed day at the beach, he said, and many families were enjoying the conditions with a surf of less than half a metre.
Mr Neill reported favourably on his bracing morning swim: "The water temperature is not too bad, I suppose, once you're in. Some people might complain and say it's cold."
A ridge of high pressure continues to drift slowly across northern and central New Zealand, although a few isolated showers may sprinkle the Bay of Plenty.
"[Tomorrow] anywhere exposed to the east gets a bit more cloud and possibly a few showers - from Northland down to the Coromandel," said MetService forecaster Kathleen Kozyniak.
Monday should bring more of the same.
But Tuesday was expected to be mainly fine as the low tracked away to the southeast, she said.
Looking ahead to New Year's Eve, weather watcher Philip Duncan, of The Radio Network, predicts a nor'west scorcher - up to 30C - in eastern parts and central areas like Taupo and Queenstown.
