Wairarapa weekend temperatures drop to a chilly -5 C

Early Saturday temperatures dropped to -5 C.

Water pipes froze over and temperatures plummeted across Wairarapa over the weekend, sparking a couple of stunning frosts.

But the wintry weather looks likely to settle over the next few days before getting wilder later in the week.

MetService meteorologist Emma Blades said Masterton recorded a very chilly -5 degrees Celsius in "the early hours" of Saturday.

She said the frosty weather was a result of a number of factors, with clear skies combining with very light winds and a cold front coming up from the south.

Visiting IT specialist, Simon Young, experienced the icy start to the weekend at a Masterton motel, where the hot water pipes were completely frozen over.

"I turned the hot tap on for a shower and no water came out, and I thought oh no," he said.

"I knew I had to wash my hair so I quickly wet it and turned on the cold tap, turned it off again to put shampoo on and then washed it out.

"The water must have been only slightly above freezing. Instant headache all day."

Mr Young, who normally lives in Waiuku, south of Auckland, said he had "never experienced the cold like this up there".

"You get the occasional frost but nothing like this," he said.

"The owner of the motel had to get the plumber in to lag the pipes because they were just so exposed to the cold.

"Now they have insulation around them so it shouldn't happen again, one would hope.

"This morning was a better shower."

The cold snap did not last long, however, with Masterton's overnight temperature on Saturday reaching "just below freezing", before rising to a comfortable 16 degrees on Sunday.

And that weather looks likely to continue, according to Ms Blades.

"Monday will be another gorgeous wintry day, with some more frost in the morning," she said.

The clear weather should last until Wednesday, with highs of about 16 degrees Celsius, then deteriorate later in the week.

Thursday would likely see rain across the region, with a chance of heavy rain and strong winds to finish off the week on Friday.