Top sunspot stays mystery

Last year's sunshine capital of New Zealand will never be known after a recount between two contesting towns proved inconclusive.

The annual accolade, awarded by the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (Niwa), had Whakatane residents seeing red after the town was disqualified for its abnormally high sunshine hours.

The small eastern Bay of Plenty town demanded a recount hoping to strip Blenheim of its hottest spot crown.

The South Island town recorded 2505 hours on its sunshine sensor for 2008 compared with Whakatane's 2703 hours - 150 more than in 2007.

After much protest, Niwa agreed to install a second recorder next to the current one for a month to compare data.

It said yesterday that Whakatane's sunshine hours were likely overestimated due to a problem with the software used to log the data.

"The findings mean it is impossible to say whether Whakatane received more or less sunshine than Blenheim in 2008."

Niwa's own device had recorded on average 12 minutes less sunshine than Whakatane's sensor, equalling about 44 hours for the entire year.

But Mary Hermanson, the marketing manager for Whakatane economic development agency Toi-EDA, said even if Niwa took 44 hours from the total, Whakatane would still be in the lead.