New Zealand Guide
When to go
With over a thousand kilometres of ocean in every direction, it comes as no surprise that New Zealand has a maritime climate, warm through the southern summer months of December to March and never truly cold, even in winter.
Weather patterns are strongly affected by the prevailing westerlies, which suck up moisture from the Tasman Sea and dump it on the western side of both islands. The South Island gets the lion's share, with the West Coast and Fiordland ranking among the world's wettest places. The south is a few degrees cooler than elsewhere, and sub-tropical Auckland and Northland are appreciably more humid. In the North Island, warm, damp summers fade almost imperceptibly into cool, wet winters, but the further south you go the more the year divides into four distinct seasons.
Such regional variation makes it viable to visit at any time of year, provided you pick your destinations. The summer months from December to March are the most popular and you'll find everything open, though often packed with holidaying Kiwis from Christmas to mid-January. Accommodation throughout summer is at a premium. In general, you're better off joining the bulk of foreign visitors during the shoulder seasons – October, November and April – when sights and attractions can be a shade quieter, and rooms easier to come by. Winter (May– Sept) is the wettest, coldest and consequently least popular time, though Northland can still be relatively balmy. The switch to prevailing southerly winds tends to bring periods of crisp, dry and cloudless weather to the West Coast and heavy snowfalls to the Southern Alps and Central North Island, allowing New Zealand to offer some of the most varied and least-populated skiing and snowboarding anywhere.