If you thought it was cold last night, you might want to get get the electric blanket ready again for what's coming.

Temperatures in Tauranga reached a low of 2C overnight, with that temperature expected to have dropped to about 1C in areas further inland such as Pyes Pa and Te Puke.

In the wider Bay of Plenty temperatures reached just 0.2C at Whakatane.

The brisk climate was the coldest of this year so far for Tauranga, Metservice meteorologist John Law said.

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The final week of Autumn is going out with a bang as yet another storm in the Southern Ocean lines itself up with New Zealand this week. Unlike the weekend cold blast this one is weaker, but will bring a period of strong to gale force winds to southern and eastern areas of both islands – and late Wednesday and into Thursday a colder southerly heads north. Winter kicks off officially on Sunday – and the forecast looks mostly settled.

Mr Law said the low temperature helped to create a "real nice, crisp start to the day".

"You've got lovely blue skies for the day so you will have a nice day in Tauranga but another cold one to come tonight."

Mr Law said temperatures were expected to drop to about 2C again, with no cloud cover to help seal in any heat.

The cold nights were the result of a cold front sweeping its way up the country, with snow and sub-zero temperatures creating havoc in areas such as Dunedin and Otago.

Mr Law said high pressure building from across the Tasman Sea also helped to push away any active weather, meaning any heat from the day "just disappeared".

However, the night time temperatures should pick up through the rest of the week with north westerly winds expected from early Thursday, Mr Law said.