New Zealand Climate

New Zealand's climate has five main factors which it is affected by, firstly its long narrow shape, the surrounding ocean, its temperate zone latitude, the prevailing Westerly winds and finally the North-South mountainous chain.

Tongariro National Park

The climate is the opposite of that in the Northern Hemisphere making New Zealand's warmer months October through to April and cooler months May through to September. New Zealand's climate is called 'oceanic temperate', is generally mild and benefits from long sun hours.

Different areas of the country receive micro-climates. Northland is sometimes considered to be sub-tropical. Canterbury is known for its dry warm North-Westerly winds. Central Otago approaches a continental type climate because of its distance from the sea.

New Zealand is considered windy, though wind speed is not usually high. However the wind pattern is complicated due to mountain barriers, Cook Strait and Foveaux Strait. Most New Zealand regions annually receive 2000 hours or more of sunshine and is therefore considered to be a relatively sunny country. View NZS.com's weather category.

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