Temperatures will lift up on Saturday ahead of Sunday’s polar change, with Sunday seeing the potential for snow down to 400 or 500m around the South Island for a time as the front heads north, moving into the North Island on Sunday PM. A surge of windy nor’westers are ahead of the front with severe gales likely in some areas, followed by a windy southerly which may also gust into gale force.

Monday next week will kick off colder, with some frosts in both main islands.

But next week high pressure over the Tasman Sea is expected to influence NZ’s weather – but whether it’s sunny and calm, or cloudy and a little breezy still isn’t confirmed for all. But either way it should bring more settled weather and warmer weather too.

We also on a different note today – with a 7 day animation of NZ’s upcoming weather to make sense of it all.