A surge of heavy rain and snow will be crossing the country this weekend as a deepening large low moves in. Winds will pick up from the NW over the North Island on Sunday with more rain, mostly in the west.

Eastern parts of the North Island look mostly dry. However the South Island has both rain and snow with precipitation falling on both western and eastern coastlines.

Next week a storm well south of NZ will help dredge up a colder southerly, mostly for the South Island, with wintry weather peaking on Tuesday then easing.