Ice cream supplies melting away as Hawke's Bay heatwave kicks in

Milena Borbe, left, Karoline Warm, Laura Heubeck, of Germany, tuck into some Hawke's Bay ice cream on Thursday. Photo / Paul Taylor

Ice cream, a fan and a trip to the beach - Hawke's Bay residents have been stocking up on the hot day essentials as the mercury stays around 30 Celsius.

Hot temperatures have led to such a demand in ice cream and cold drinks that some businesses have had to turn customers away.

Havelock North McDonald's ran out of soft serve ice cream and milkshakes on Wednesday evening, forcing customers to look elsewhere.

Manager of Rush Munroe's in Hastings Jess MacLeod said that during the last week, staff had been dishing out an average of 1200 scoops of ice cream a day.

"Our busiest days have been New Year's Eve and New Year's Day. The flavour we seem to be running out of the most is Feijoa, people always tend to over-order on chocolate, but feijoa is the favourite."

MacLeod said the average waiting time for customers during the busy season could be up to 25 minutes.

"We can only have a couple of people scooping at a time, but we do get really long lines of people, sometimes it goes out the gate and on to the footpath.

"On Thursday morning we had about 15 people waiting outside the gate and that's before we had even opened up."

MacLeod said while the regulars usually eased back to allow tourists and visitors in, she said people who grew up in Hawke's Bay but no longer lived there would often visit the iconic spot when they were on holiday.

"We had one customer come in who remembered visiting here 30 years ago and he lives overseas, he's just one of many that comes to visit the store whenever he's in the Bay."

Owner of the Mr Whippy Hawke's Bay Branch, Peter Fogarty, said that although the season started off a little quiet with the rain, they're now back into the full swing of things.

"There was a truck down at Waimarama beach yesterday and staff were completely run off their feet. The last four or five days have all been like that."

While ice cream was a must-have for many, portable swimming pools and fans had also been flying out the door of hardware stores.

A staff member at Wairoa's Hammer Hardware said temperatures had been sweltering and customers had been purchasing items best suited to cooling themselves down.

"I couldn't actually tell you how many we've sold this week," he said.

While Friday's temperatures were looking to be a little cooler, the sunshine and searing temperatures are going to stick around with highs of up to 28C next week.