South Island weather analyst Richard Green says temperatures soared into the high 20’s in Hawkes Bay yesterday. “Hastings took the top hot spot with 27 degrees followed closely by Napier with 25, Whangarei 24 and Christchurch 23″.

Out west and in the far south it was a different story especially for Mainlanders, as they had to cope with cool, wet and windy conditions with the mercury barely making it to double figures yesterday in Southland.

Green says the Nor’wester hammered away over many parts of NZ during the weekend with gusts in excess of 130 kph in some inland areas. “Cantabrians woke up to gale force winds with gusts bordering on hurricane force yesterday morning and unusually this delivered a few spots of rain as the gale carried the moisture across from the Alps”.