New Year's Eve partiers in Hawke's Bay can celebrate now - they're expected to have the warmest start to the year, while everyone else deals with cloud and some showers.
A low sitting over the Tasman is delivering a mixed bag of New Year weather, with eastern parts of the North Island getting the best of it, and western parts of the South Island getting the most rain.
MetService meteorologist Ciaran Doolan said Hawke's Bay would be the clearest and warmest.
"Probably a lot of other spots will be okay, but there is a lot of cloud around at the moment, with this messy frontal system that's moving pretty slowly in a northeasterly fashion."
While Central Otago, Dunedin and Southland have had rain this afternoon, that's moving north to give Christchurch patchy rain this evening.