Balmy Northland the place to be for New Year's holidays

Josh Benli, 4, and little brother Ollie, 2, enjoy some much-needed treats on a hot day at the Town Basin on their way to Kerikeri. Photo/John Stone

Northland looks like being one of the places to be this New Year's holiday, with plenty of fine weather forecast across the region.

And Northlanders and tourists are being urged to go out and have a blast with the skies over Northland expected to be clear until the end of next week.

Of all the places in New Zealand, Northland is where merry makers ought to be able to usher in the New Year in style as weather boffins predict warm temperatures and dry weather to continue even on cloudy days.

In a reversal of the rain-soaked Christmas weather for the upper North Island, the South Island is in for a wet New Year's Eve especially the Canterbury and Otago regions.

In the 24 hours to 9.30am yesterday, no rain was recorded at any of the Northland Regional Council's 43 sites throughout the region.

MetService meteorologist Tui McInnes said though isolated showers were forecast for Northland leading into the New Year, it was unlikely given the balmy weather as a result of a high pressure system.

Isolated showers, if they fell, will be mostly in inland areas which excludes bigger town centres such as Whangārei, Dargaville and Kaitaia.

"It's definitely a good week for people to go and enjoy the lovely beaches in Northland. Clouds will keep temperatures down a bit but daytime temps will still hover around the mid 20s," McInnes said.

Daytime temperatures in Whangārei, Kaitaia, Kerikeri and Paihia until the end of next week will be between 24C and 27C, dropping down to 15C overnight with little or light winds.

Dargaville won't be as warm as Whangārei, with temperatures in the early 20s.

Holidaymakers are still heading north from Auckland and are facing massive delays with bumper-to-bumper traffic crawling at snail's pace at times yesterday with more heavy traffic expected to head north today.

The NZ Transport Agency said it was taking motorists nearly two hours to travel from central Auckland to Wellsford along State Highway 1 yesterday morning, nearly an hour longer than usual.

Campgrounds and other New Year hot spots around Northland are already swarming with thousands of holidaymakers, both locals and overseas travellers.

While most have already arrived in time for the New Year, the rest are expected over the weekend including those doing day trips or for the weekend only from Auckland.