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A south to southwest flow across the country is expected to weaken further as an anticyclone slowly moves on to the country.

A frosty start over parts of the South Island has formed this morning in sheltered areas however moderate breezes have kept them from popping over a number of centres up and down the country.

Friday proved to be fairly ordinary for more than half the nation but some areas managed late Autumn sunshine with little wind.
Inland South Island areas and much of the West Coast saw blue skies all day and Friday begain with a crisp start.

Elsewhere though there was a hint of winter approaching with either some rain or showers and temperatures not overly high.

Cook Strait was flooded with thousands of litres of raw sewage on Monday when heavy rains overwhelmed Wellington's waste water system.

Over a six-hour period, 6229 cubic metres of unfiltered, untreated sewage-contaminated stormwater was spewed from Moa Pt through an old pipe - used only when there is too much pressure on the main system, Fairfax reported.

It's been a soggy week for parts ofthe country but a big high is set to dry us out.

Head weather analyst Philip Duncan gives us the brighter news...

There's talk in some weather circles that we could be in for more extreme weather from season to season resulting in more droughts and serious flooding - So how did last summer turn into a drought so quickly?

As we've mentioned many times before it was the anticyclones dominating our weather that stopped or slowed down any other rain-bearing systems.

Auckland started off the week in spectacular fashion under clear blue skies but since then it's been patchy at best and one of the wettest weeks in quite a few months.

The northern city isn't alone as parts of Northland have also had their fair share and thunderstorms have rattled off and on over both provinces.

Thundery skies with heavy downpours hit parts of the north today and fog hung over Christchurch until midday and thousands of passengers were stranded for a time at the airport.

This appears to be the precursor for some chilly stuff moving over southern and central regions tomorrow with snow falling to quite low levels being the icing on the cake.

Thousands of passengers have been affected by delays to flights in and out of Christchurch airport this morning due to fog.
Nine inbound domestic flights have been diverted from Christchurch this morning to Wellington, Dunedin and Timaru.

Five departing Air New Zealand flights have been cancelled because of the fog.

Conditions are a little messy at either end of the country today and this time we're taking a look at the southern end as it appears temperatures are set to drop again with snow levels lowering further than last weekend.

Over the South Island temperatures might be up a degree or two today as milder air pushes in ahead of the next fairly active frontal system.

Wednesday for more than 75% of us was clear and sunny but rain with some heavy falls moved across parts of Northland and Auckland so a soggy day rather unexpectedly saw healthy rainfall totals.