Waitangi: Warm, wet weekend awaits

The weekend's weather will be a mixed bag. Photo / Greg Bowker

Umbrellas and sunscreen needed to cope with showers, sun and blustery southwesterlies.

Holidaymakers will need both sunscreen and an umbrella this long weekend, as a mixed bag of weather looks set to continue.

Aucklanders should watch out for showers and a strong, blustery southwesterly this morning. Temperatures are expected to be around 22C, but feel colder in the wind, MetService meteorologist John Law said.

"We're back into a bit of a cooler southwest feed of air, which is going to bring some showers, but the showers become few and far between through the weekend."

But it's good news for rugby fans travelling to Wellington for the Sevens, as Mr Law said the city looks "pretty good" for kickoff today.

"It's a cooler southerly so the temperatures here in the capital are around 16C-17C, plus the southerly, but it should be a case of any showers being very early in the morning or very late in the night ..."

Politicians, protesters and media camped out at Waitangi should expect some isolated showers today, and a blustery southwesterly, but the showers were expected to become "few and far between as we go through the afternoon", Mr Law said, with a high of around 24C expected.

MetService this week said the start to February would see a cooler southwesterly change, bringing some welcome relief from the extreme heat of January and some much needed rain. But MetService predicted a drier than normal February for the South Island and above normal rainfall for Northland, and possibly Auckland and Coromandel.

Meanwhile, motorists are being urged to take care on the roads this holiday weekend.

"It's the old congestion and patience message - be prepared for your trip to take you quite a bit longer," said Dave Cliff, assistant commissioner of road policing.

As of yesterday morning, 26 people had died on New Zealand roads this year, he said.

"At the current rate, we're going to end up with about another 250 to 270 people killed," he said. "The vast majority of those lives will be lost because people will be travelling too fast, some of them will be driving under the influence of alcohol, some will be distracted because they're using mobile phones or those sorts of things, people not wearing seatbelts - and the message is almost all of those deaths are entirely preventable."

There is no official holiday road period this weekend, as Waitangi Day is not historically a long weekend, Mr Cliff said. But Counties Manukau police had put in place their own road period from 12pm on Thursday, to 6am on Monday, as part of its Operation One Piece.

"Police vehicles will be highly visible around the district this weekend in an effort to get people to slow down," Counties Manukau road policing manager Inspector Alison Brand said.

Roadworks sites throughout Northland and many parts of Auckland were shut down at noon yesterday to help reduce delays and make travel safer for everyone.