Wednesday is a colder, wetter and windier day across large parts of NZ as low pressure deepens off our east coast and high pressure builds to the west and north.

Auckland and other northern centres exposed to the Tasman Sea weather will have windy, colder and wetter Wednesday with gales expected in the afternoon from the south-west.

Another burst of colder air and coastal showers and mountain snow flurries moves up the South Island.

However, southerners may also notice a slightly milder airflow kicking in for Thursday and Friday as winds from Australia and the sub-tropics move through – ahead of high pressure which is likely to kick off the first weekend of winter on the meteorological calendar.