Weather to put a dampener on the school holidays

Most of the country will be greeted with a cold and frosty start tomorrow morning. Photo / File

Bring out the brollies and dust off the board games as the rest of the first week of the school holidays is set to be a wet and windy one for most of the country.

But first rug up tonight for a chilly and frosty start tomorrow. Places dropping into negative figures include the inland parts of the South Island such as Canterbury, Otago and Southern Lakes as well as popular holiday spots such as Taupo, which will drop to a minimum -3C, and -1C in Rotorua.

The temperatures will then warm up as the day progresses before the wind and rain hits the South Island in the afternoon and the North Island on Thursday.

MetService shift meteorologist Mmathapelo Makgabutlane said from tomorrow rain will fall over the southern and western parts of the South Island before moving up the country and landing in the North Island on Thursday and Friday.

She said the only places that could be spared from rain are the eastern parts of the North Island.

Strong winds are also set to batter the central parts of the North Island picking up Friday and Saturday with the possibility of severe gale winds in exposed places.

Temperatures will warm up later this week. Photo / MetService

Makgabutlane said if people were thinking about what to do with the kids for the school holidays it would be wise to do indoor activities.

"So far it's definitely looking like an indoor week."

However after tomorrow morning's cold snap, the temperatures for most of the country especially the North Island warm up and hit double digits with places like Wellington moving from 10C to about 15C.