Thousands enjoy sun and sea

Piha beach on Auckland's west coast attracted 700 visitors yesterday who made the most of the great holiday weather. Photo / Richard Robinson

Holidaymakers across the region got another chance to bask in near-perfect weather yesterday - and the sunny days look set to continue.

Around Auckland, thousands flocked to the beaches to sunbathe or swim off New Year's hangovers. At 4pm Takapuna beach had 2500 visitors, Long Bay 2000 and Piha 700.

There were 1000 at Orewa, 1200 at Omaha and 600 swimmers at the newly patrolled Pakiri beach.

Andy Kent of Surf Life Saving New Zealand said patrols were kept busy yesterday, but there were no serious incidents.

"What we've found is east coast beaches have been busier than west coast ones."

Patrols attended 15 first aid cases across the northern region and there was nothing out of the ordinary for this time of year, he said.

A 52-year-old woman was taken to Whangarei Hospital in a serious condition after going into the water at a beach near Kerikeri yesterday afternoon. She is understood to have spent up to three minutes underwater, and had to be recovered by her partner and his son, who performed CPR.

A volunteer firefighter who happened to be at the beach tookover, and after about 25 minutes the woman regained consciousness.

More people can be expected to hit the beaches today as MetService forecaster Jarrod Barrow says the weather should remain fine for most of the long weekend.

Northland to Waikato should be warm and sunny until Monday afternoon, which will see some rain and a small amount of cloud cover, however this will be gone by Tuesday.

Mr Barrow says all the northern region will see temperatures into the 20s.