Gales, heavy rain, squalls and snow to low levels along with bitterly cold wind chills are all in the forecast for NZ in the next few days ahead – while some in the east will have plenty of sunshine and dry.

On Friday a secondary surge of weather moves in from the Southern Ocean bringing rain, snow and gales to the South Island.

This weekend it becomes blustery in many regions with the main secondary cold surge moving in nationwide over Sunday and Monday.

It’s short lived though – by Tuesday next week warmer westerlies already return to 2/3’s of New Zealand.