On Monday low pressure surrounds New Zealand to the north (far to the north), to the east and to the south – but the main weather feature is the incoming high pressure belt from the west.

Colder winds will blow through the southern half of the country in particular for Monday, ahead of the high (which will be centred more so over the North Island this week).

This high will track into NZ over the coming days then exits on Wednesday PM and across Anzac Day Thursday, ushering in mild but windy nor’westers with gales in some exposed places and rain and showers into the west and south.

There may also be a weak low that affects northern NZ on Friday – although the outlook has been messy for days over this because of so much surrounding high pressure which can sometimes “smother” the rain makers and reduce the rain bands… hence a changeable forecast when it comes to wet weather and rainfall totals.

Either way – the week ahead has both settled April weather and typical windy/unsettled Autumn weather ahead.

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• WeatherWatch.co.nz