[JoanneG]

These may seem like silly questions but here goes..........

What are New Zealand winters really like?

Is it true that there is on average more daylight than the UK?

What time does it go dark in winter and summer?

Is it really windy most of the time in Welly?

We hear about the outdoor life but is it really accessible all year?

Yours from
Miserable in the winter!

[Brad77]

depends where you are. North Island cities are about 9 to 12 max in winter, cold at night with frost away from the coast.

South Island inland will be much colder with snow, lower maximums, wet, windy, cold.

more daylight than the UK cause we are at a lower latitude.

welly can be windy, alot of the time. It is exposed at the bottom of the NI.

for auckland June 22 mid winter - Sunrise is at 07h34am and sunset at 05h12pm.

London, UK gets 7 hours 49 mins of light in mid winter, Auckland has 9 hours 30 mins.

[whiskythedog]

we are in auckland - sunny but cool 10c right now (8.23am)
more daylight hours means less going to work in the dark and coming home in the dark (i hated that)
no long drawn out dusks/twilights - gets light/dark much quicker
(flipside to longer winter hours means shorter summer hours - goes dark about 9.30pm longest day - so a coworker told me - only been here a month but seems a lot better than uk winters so far!
going to take dog to beach now ...

[able]

You're probably being a bit uncharitable with those winter temperatures Brad.

Mid winter daily average max's are...

Auckland (NI) 15 deg C
Blenheim (SI) 13 deg C
Christchurch (SI) 11 deg C
Napier (NI) 14 deg C
New Plymouth (NI) 13 deg C
Wellington (NI) 11 deg C

http://www.emigratenz.org/new-zealand-climate.html

[Sam B]

Haven't done a winter yet, but when I think this is the equivalent of November in the UK, it is miles better. Most days have been sunny and quite warm, very little wind here in Cambridge (so nice after Cornwall). Chiily at night, some fog in the mornings. When it rains, it is torrential, but doesn't go on as long. No drizzle!

[incredible hulse]

Only done one full winter (last year) in Welly and it was pretty good. Temps dropped to around 0-2 at night, with a couple of nights below freezing, and days between 7-12 at a guess. It is mainly crisp and dry. The bad weather hits in Spring when it seems to rain almost constantly, and the winds pick up also around Oct and Nov. It would seem to me that the seasons are later here as summer (Dec-Feb) only actually started getting decent weather in late Jan.
I wouldn't go by the stats to be honest as they seemed to have been constructed with an NZ bias - I think I read before coming out here that Welly has less rain than London ?!?

[Toto]

Well we're in Auckland and I've started seeing some smoke coming out of neighbours chimneys in the evenings. Last year I found it to be colder than I was expecting and then heard on a current affairs programme that it had been the worst winter in 40 years. I do feel the cold and after last winter decided I would definitely be wearing a winter coat when I leave work in the evenings this year. Have had no need for it yet but have been snuggling under a blanket on the sofa in the evening!

I lived here in the 70's as a kid and don't remember it being as cold in the winter as it get's now but then when you're active and running around I guess you don't notice it so much.

[JoanneG]

Weighing things up thats a definite tick in the 'pros' box and.....thinking.....about wearing a winter coat much better than absolutely freezing even with the winter coat.

Actually I don't mind the cold so much as the wet, miserable and dark, drizzly for days weather and I hate the wind so I'm not sure Welly will be right for me. I like the sound of the extra couple of daylight hours in winter though and 9.30 is late enough in the summer.

Just googled Cambridge – Sam B – if you want to go to the coast – which way to you go and how long does it take?

I do hope – ToTo – that this has nothing to do with the fact that New Zealand is drifting, very slowly, I am informed by my ex-geology student OH, towards Antarctica!

Thank you for all of your, as usual, very helpful replies. These combined with the awful reports just shown on Anglian TV regarding East Anglia beaches mean I'm definitely a step closer to 'when' instead of 'if'. Looking forward to our recce.

[Sam B]

Right, the coast from Cambridge - either West through Hamilton and out to Raglan - pretty, scenic, quite wild, with lush green cliffs and black sparkly sand; or East to Waihi, via Morrinsville, Paeroa, waihi and on to Waihi beach. At Waihi beach you can walk over the cliffs to Orekawa beach (or something, might have got that name wrong) which is stunning, white sand, pohutakawas lining the edge.

However, after 6 years in Cornwall, I have to admit proximity to the sea is not one of Cambridge's selling points. It's about 1 and a quarter hours to Raglan and one and a half to Waihi.

[migratory birds]

Browse this for sunrise/set times at different times of year for various locations in NZ:

http://timeanddate.com/worldclock/sunrise.html

[marcia]

Actually I don't mind the cold so much as the wet, miserable and dark, drizzly for days weather and I hate the wind


I hated the weeks of endless grey skies and the drizzle, much prefer it to bucket it down and get it over with!! It certainly does that here - my husband (the anorak) measures the water levels in the water tanks each day - we have 4 inches the other night and boy did we know it - its pretty noisy on a tin roof!!! :laugh

But we certainly haven't seen any toatlly grey days, you usually still have some blue sky almost every day - its cold but makes it feel better when you see the blue instead of the grey!!

yesterday here in Palmy it was 20 degrees - we are having an exceptional Autumn/early winter - it'll do for me!!

Only problem down here is the wind - its kills my ears when it ges going - but my sister sent me some fluffly ear muffs which i have worn - NO YOU CAN'T SEE THE PHOTOS!!!! But its only to be expected - we do have the huge wind farm down here which kind of gives the game away!!!

So to conclude - so far for us the winter has not been so bad - I'm even getting to be tough like the kiwis and not having the gas fire on but curling up under a blanket when watching telly on an evening - only problem is too many adverts which for me always means a cuppa break or a nibble of something and I have to get out from under my cosy blanket (or send Kev when he will oblige!!! :clap )

[katandbob]

As we are at the very bottom - in Invercargill it is getting dark about 5.45pm & dark for about 6.15pm... shortest day is in June apparently and it will start to get lighter.
It gets cold at night - but not all the time, last night I was boiling as we lit the fire expecting it to be cold - and it didnt! I was out at 11pm in a tshirt and I didnt feel too chilly.
For last weekend it chucked it down on Sunday night - till around Thursday, including gusty winds of 120km in exposed places. so we had the fire on from about 7.30pm till we went to bed.
But it never dropped below 15c as we have a heater with a thermostat on it and that was the coldest it got, and warmed up by 10am.

Sat and today have been full sun, NO wind whatsoever and I have tshirt & shorts on!

So even this far down its not as bad a weather as we used to get in the UK(NE lincs on the coast)
It is very unpredictable - but you know that there will be sunshine somewhere in the not to distant future - so it makes up for it in my books!

As you appreciate the sunny days more!

Kat