The shortest day of year – the day with the least amount of available sunlight – was Monday.  Precisely at 4:38am on Monday June 22nd we hit the Winter Solstice – your calendar might say June 21st, this is based on UTC which is 12 hours behind New Zealand.  

Now we enter the coldest six weeks of the year – there is a delay from the shortest day to the coldest weather. Just like how our hottest weather in summer is a month or two after the longest day just before Christmas.  However, despite entering the coldest couple of months of the year, you can tell yourself that as of next week the days will start to gradually get longer again…although you probably won’t notice the growing sunlight hours until August.

In the 10 years WeatherWatch.co.nz has been around we’ve never run a competition – but we’ve noticed something over the years about the shortest day in New Zealand – it can be full of beauty and colour.  Some Auckland and Northland gardens are still having summer flowers in bloom.  Some in the South Island are still recording grass growth.  Despite that, we’re getting snow on the hills and ranges and winter is ticking along as usual.  We wanted to encourage as many people as possible to document just how stunning our country is in the depths of winter – we hope you enter our photo competition!

While the solstice was on Monday – both Sunday and Monday were of equal daylight length.

The Competition:

We want to showcase to the world just how vibrant and beautiful New Zealand is even on the shortest, darkest, day of the year.

Send us your best, brightest, New Zealand photos showcasing a colourful ‘darkest day’ and we’ll randomly select two winners to receive 10 litres of Wet N Forget valued at $200 each!

IMPORTANT: Photos must be taken 24 hours either side of 4:38am on Monday. In other words – we’ll take any photos you’ve snapped outside across New Zealand Sunday or Monday (June 21 and 22).

HOW TO UPLOAD YOUR PICS:
Please upload your photo(s) using the photos tab in our App, or using the Photos tab at the top of the WeatherWatch.co.nz homepage. In other words – the standard way. No special entry form – we’re watching all updates come in and provided you add a way for us to contact you then you’re automatically entered.

You can even enter simply by uploading to our Facebook or Twitter pages – but we’d far prefer you spent an extra 30 seconds uploading to our photo gallery via the app or website so that it can be seen by everyone and remains on a New Zealand website, not an offshore one.

We’ll announce the winners later next week! And a big thanks to Wet N Forget for their support.

Rules: Competition is open to anyone but you must be over 16 to be eligible for the WNF prize.  Entries must be received on either this Sunday or Monday (June 21 and 22). You must provide your first and last name and a way for us to contact you (email is best).  To be eligible for the prize the photos must highlight flowers in bloom, OR a general outdoor brightness theme in New Zealand on the shortest, darkest, day(s) of the year.  There is no limit to photos entered. Photos will be used in news stories or saved in our galleries.

—>>ENTRIES CLOSE 2pm TUESDAY JUNE 23rd<<—

– WeatherWatch.co.nz