Does it always rain?
 

We live in the North West of England - pretty wet at times here but moving to Auckland (hopefully) in next 4 -6 months. Is the North Island wetter?

Re: Does it always rain?
 

You'd expect about 60 days of rainfall/year in Auckland and it doesn't get much hotter than 25C in the summer. A mild climate. Can be quite damp in NZ, though.

Re: Does it always rain?
 

Auckland is built on a narrow strip of land, with the Pacific Ocean and Tasman sea to either side.

Subsequently, this provides Auckland a maritime climate. Which basically means it rains, alot, but the sun is always not far away either! We found it very humid and damp at times, esp in winter.

Re: Does it always rain?
 

Well it was 23C on Saturday, and it's autumn. Temperatures are often over 30C, and it does get very humid.

Re: Does it always rain?
 

Well yes, but I was thinking about general averages rather than specific days. Hottest temperature on the South Island was 41C once, but I wouldn't bother buying a hat if I was going to live there.

Damp....damp...that's all you need to know about NZ.....

Re: Does it always rain?
 

I am talking about general averages too.
As a person who comes from the south of England and now lives in Auckland, I would say that as far as the weather is concerned, its much milder in the winter, hotter in the summer and the rainfall is probably about the same.

Re: Does it always rain?
 

I come from the South of Blighty too - and yes, its' wetter in NZ - that is to say, North Island, not too far from Auckland.

But, thread starter, if you're asking about the weather, what is your real motive for moving to NZ?

Look, the weather is not that great - it is not like moving to the UK with sun. You know how when the summer in Blighty is quite nice and it stays light til really late and you can go out without a cardi til 1am? That's not NZ.

Re: Does it always rain?
 

It all depends on where you live.

Top half of the South Island, Nelson or Blenheim......Sunny blue skies, warm day time temps are the norm all year round.

I remember fishing at Ranagi beach nr Blenheim and you can see the North Island, across the way and where Wellington is, was huge lump of black clouds. This was a day that resulted in a number of landslips in Wellington, caused by the large amounts of rain.

Where I was, 22kms away (as the crow flies), it was a beautiful sunny day.

Re: Does it always rain?
 

Oh yes, I forgot about that one or two week bit in summer where you can do that in UK.
Maybe I just feel the heat more, but this summer just gone which wasn't a great one, we were all sitting out in the garden or going for swims (in the sea) late at night, and I would still hear our neighbours in their pool at midnight.
But...if you like really hot summers and hardly any rain then maybe NZ isn't the right choice.

Re: Does it always rain?
 

Having lived in Salford it doesn't rain as much (unless you live on the south island west coast!) (all the stats are available online)

Weather here is very changeable and can drive you nuts. Go out in a t-shirt in the morning and freeze in the afternoon, go out with a jacket and swelter in the afteroon.

Don't move here for the weather - please, don't do that. Go to OZ if hot sunny predictable days are your thing.

Re: Does it always rain?
 

I also come from the South Coast of England and now live in the Nelson and Bays area. We have travelled all over New Zealand. Travelled - not lived. We have lived in Nelson and Bays for three years.

In my experience I think Auckland would be wetter overall than the South Coast of England. My decades of experience on the South Coast wasn't that I was living under perpetual clouds with drizzle. It just wasn't. I don't know why some think this. According to friends and family , South Coast is enjoying lovely weather even right now - April.
We camped, spent evenings after work on the beach right into twilight, stopped out in our gardens after a BBQ 'til late. especially during the summer months. Sat out in pub gardens. All the usual stuff .
We do this here in NZ too. We wouldn't have come if we couldn't have done similar here.

Auckland is a bit more tropical I found, so I think you would perhaps have more rain. There again mean temperatures would be higher too.
It's rained heavily on us every time we have been to Auckland. I don;t suppose its continually raining though. Just rains heavy sometimes. Look at its latitude and longtitude. Not surprising its a wee bit tropical.

Here in Nelson and Bays the weather seems similar to med. weather for the most part. southern itlay for instance. Mostly sunny days and not so much rain - no snow. This leads to problems with water shortages though. Winter is frosty starts , and then sunny days.
You certainly need a hat here and sunnies too. not least because of UV and sunburn. It's sensible and everyone does the cover up thing.

This area has its rainy times too & thank goodness for that . Christmas/Dec is often a rainy period and according to locals here so is May.

I must admit , I miss those late twilight summer evenings in the UK and Europe. Here it's dark much earlier , even in the summer.

NZ seems to have many micro-climates. what happens where we live can be different from the weather experienced just an hour up the road.

It's weather. Just enjoy and live with it.

Re: Does it always rain?
 

Hi Albielittle, i also come from salford, where abouts were you living?

Re: Does it always rain?
 

ordsall

Re: Does it always rain?
 

We get long summer twilights here in the south, great for going for a bike ride after tea.

The stats, and my experience is that we get less rainfall on the east coast of south island than would be the case in southern UK. We also tend not to get the dreary grey days that were common in the London/SE area. For example last week here in Dunedin we had a shocking 4 day period of consistent grey skies, and I realised by day 3 that it was the first time I could recall this happening in the 3 years we have been here. Then yesterday was a stunner again.

Re: Does it always rain?
 

To answer the OP, compared with NW England, I think you'll find Auckland:
- considerably warmer in the winter
- slightly warmer in the summer
- about the same or slightly less wet days, but wet days tend to be for shorter periods of the day, and heavier rain