Stunning weather is affecting a number of regions across the country as a large high pushes in from the eastern Tasman Sea and delivers light frosts as far north as Auckland.

WeatherWatch.co.nz says the frosty weather has arrived a little earlier than last year in Auckland but says the winter ahead is still likely to see a mixture of record challenging warm days and cold ones.

As most of New Zealand enjoys the crisp mornings and mild afternoons a new system is brewing across eastern Australia.

“We expect to see the rain clouds developing this weekend to the west of New Zealand and while the weekend itself looks mostly sunny and mild the rain clouds and winds will build on Sunday” says head weather analyst Philip Duncan.

“We may see some rain moving in on Sunday in the far west, places like Taranaki, Northland and the West Coast then further east on Sunday night and across Monday”.

Mr Duncan says on Monday a low may form over the North Island bringing a few days of showers, but nothing in the computer guidance indicates anything nasty at this early stage.

The final week of May could be dominated by a south west flow as this new low departs and a large high centred over Australia struggles to move eastwards towards New Zealand – leaving us in the squash zone that produces windier weather for many regions and cloudy conditions for the west but often sunny weather in the east.

– Homepage image / The South Island’s Lake Pearson on a frosty morning, file, Francis Vallance

– WeatherWatch.co.nz