Temperatures up and down the country are wide and varied this morning with frosts in a few areas but mild northerly breezes in others.

Taupo is -3 this morning with Christchurch just 1 degree higher on minus 2, yet temperatures are expected to top the 20 degree mark later in the day in the garden city. Le Bons Bay on Banks Peninsula is a comparatively balmy 13 degrees.

Wellington is the warmest main centre on 11 degrees. Castlepoint is the windiest spot, a nor’ wester gusting up to 60kph this morning.

Generally sunny skies with a few cloudy areas are expected across most of the nation today, with temperatures above average for early September.