UPDATED 8:07am — The long weekend is upon us and the forecast contains plenty of dry weather – but rain and showers are in the mix too for some holiday spots, especially on Queens Birthday Monday itself. 

Below we have focused on where the rain and showers will be this weekend...

Saturday:
Rain slowly moves up the South Island’s West Coast throughout Saturday.  As the front moves north during daylight hours there will be some brief spillover rain in to the very dry east coast including Southland and Otago in the morning, then moving north into Canterbury for a brief time.  By night time any rain or showers will likely be hovering around the upper South Island north of about Greymouth and Kaikoura – and it will be patchy.
Most of the North Island looks mainly dry for Saturday but  showers are possible in the eastern parts of Northland and Taranaki.

Sunday:
Sunday is a little more complicated.  Showers will clear the northwestern corner of the South Island in the morning.  In the North Island a humid nor’east flow means showers or patches of rain are possible in Northland – especially the top half of Northland.  In that same nor’east flow a few showers may also move into western Bay of Plenty and eastern Coromandel Peninsula. There is then the risk of showers developing in other northern and western parts of the North Island, check out rain maps for more specifics. Rain also returns to Fiordland.  
However, elsewhere in NZ will be dry or mainly dry.

Queens Birthday Monday:
Monday seems to get wetter by the hour as a slow moving cold front heads towards towards New Zealand from the west. Rain is likely along the entire West Coast of the South Island with some spillover rain into Southland and western Otago. Showers, possibly heavy, are also possible around the upper South Island regions of Nelson and Marlborough.  

In the North Island rain and showers will push down across northern and western areas – then elsewhere as the day goes on. There’s a fair bit of dry in the mix too – but the areas with rain may find the rain bands slow moving.  One to watch and rain may set in and become heavy at night north of Auckland.

Tuesday
If you’re leaving it until Tuesday to return home please note there is a chance of heavy rain in both islands and isolated thunderstorms as a new low pressure system moves in.

Extremes this long weekend:

• Wettest: Fiordland and potentially northern Northland.
• Driest: Wairarapa & Hawkes Bay
• Windiest: Around Cook Strait and eastern areas (north to north west winds)
• Warmest: Many areas will be mild, but the nor’west winds will make northern and eastern areas areas warmest.
• Coldest: No where is especially cold, but the lower South Island is exposed to a southerly by Monday which will drop temperatures as the day goes on.

– WeatherWatch.co.nz