New Year’s Day weather: Wet start to 2025 for New Zealand’s holiday hotspots, main centres

• The new year gets off to a wet start, with showers forecast for most main centres.
• Auckland’s forecast is for a partly cloudy January 1 with isolated showers set to clear in the evening and a high of 22C.
• Holiday hotspots around the North Island are also subject to showers first up.

It’s a wet first day of 2025 for all main centres around the country.

Auckland has a partly cloudy forecast with isolated showers slated to clear in the evening. The daily high is 22C. Tomorrow should be mainly fine with a chance of a few showers and a high of 23C.

In the holiday hotspots, Northland’s forecast was for mainly fine conditions with isolated showers clearing by evening, while the Coromandel should enjoy a mainly fine day with some cloud.

The Bay of Plenty has a mainly fine day with some showers expected, as does Waikato, Gisborne and Hawke’s Bay.

In Wellington, MetService forecast showers and a high of 15C. The second day of the year promises a jump in temperature to 20C, with a forecast of partly cloudy conditions and a chance of a shower until evening.

Christchurch should experience a cloudy day with showers easing from the morning and the temperature reaching 16C. Tomorrow’s temperature would rise to 21C and remain partly cloudy, MetService said.

Dunedin has a mostly cloudy forecast with a few showers expected to clear by the evening. The expected daily high was 15C, rising to 19C tomorrow, when it should be fine for most of the day before showers develop in the afternoon.

It follows a damp New Year’s Eve for most of the country last night, with the weather cancelling one event in Christchurch and threatening others elsewhere.

A MetService-issued heavy rain watch for Wairoa, Gisborne and Hawke’s Bay remained active until 10pm yesterday, with isolated thunderstorms and torrential rain possible till then, just as revellers gathered to celebrate the year’s end.

Planned New Year’s Eve events in the area were still likely to go ahead, with conditions forecast to change late yesterday evening. The Rhythm and Vines music festival in Gisborne came to an end last night.

In Christchurch, though, heavy rainfall from Monday evening and through the night left the Hagley Park North grounds sodden and forced the city council to yesterday cancel a children’s event and the following midnight countdown and fireworks show.

The National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (Niwa) said Christchurch received more than a third of its average December rainfall in the 24 hours to 11am yesterday, with 46mm of rain recorded in the city and 73mm recorded at Akaroa.

Raphael Franks is an Auckland-based reporter who covers breaking news. He joined the Herald as a Te Rito cadet in 2022.

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