Rain and wind make way for high, low 20s for North Island Easter Sunday

A front moving up the South Island and on to the North Island overnight will make way for a high set to bring warm autumn temperatures for much of the country on the first day of April.

Today's front will bring rain to the West Coast of the South Island and strong winds to the east of the South Island and central New Zealand.

Metservice meteorologist Angus Hines said there was a strong wind watch in place as winds could gust as fast as 100km/h in the Tararua District, Wairarapa, Rimutaka Hill Road in Wellington and Canterbury High Country.

If the winds gust over 110km/h Metservice will release a warning.

"It's moving up the South Island but it is weakening. It does get on to the North Island this evening and it will bring a brief period of rain to western parts of the North Island, around Kapiti Coast and up towards Taranaki," Hines said.

Behind the front is a ridge of high pressure which is expected to arrive tomorrow in time for Easter Sunday and lasting through Easter Monday.

"The remaining part of the Easter Weekend is expected to be pretty nice. It'll be fairly settled. The winds will all ease away.

"And we are expecting quite a fair amount of sunshine over the country from tomorrow onwards."

The high temperatures will reach into the low 20s in the North Island including in Auckland and Hamilton but cooler temperatures would be setting in overnight and there would be foggy starts to the day in some areas.

Hines said with daylight saving ending tonight the country could expect it to be lighter earlier tomorrow morning.

"We're going to be winding the clocks back so we're going to get an extra hour's daylight at the start of the day and lose an extra hour's daylight at the end of the day.

"So people will probably notice the sun coming up earlier but they'll certainly notice it setting earlier as well."

Easter Sunday highs

• Whangarei: 23 degrees and cloudy

• Auckland: 22 degrees and fine

• Hamilton: 22 degrees and fine

• Wellington: 20 degrees and fine

• Christchurch: 17 degrees and fine

• Dunedin: 17 degrees and fine.