Wild weather on its way, South Island to get first cold snap

More rain and possibly thunderstorms are set to hit the North Island today, while the South Island gets its first real cold snap tomorrow.

Metservice has issued thunderstorm watches for places north of Auckland.

"There will possibly be heavy rain there with thunderstorms this evening and tonight," said MetService meteorologist April Clark.

"To be honest, most of the North Island is descending into rain or showers today. It's only Hawke's Bay that sort of only gets it this evening. But most places are going to be wet for most of the day."

There is another front lingering across the lower North Island with a severe weather watch in place for the Tararua Range. Rain was expected to become heavy in the area this evening and into tomorrow, Clark said.

That front would then sink down over the upper South Island, bringing rain to areas like Nelson and Marlborough later today and tomorrow.

Meanwhile, the South Island is in for its "first decent cold snap" since last winter, Clark said.

Tomorrow night, inland areas such as Queenstown and Wanaka were expected to reach freezing, while Alexandra was forecast to hit -1C tomorrow night.

"The front's just moving in overnight tonight over South Island and it moves up quite rapidly tomorrow," Clark said.

"You'll be getting rain on the east coast with snow falling to about 800m especially about those ranges, so the Canterbury high country will probably get it and the Kaikoura Ranges will probably get a bit of snow."

The southerly would then move up the North Island on Sunday evening and Monday, with possible gale-force winds in Wellington. Cloud meant it wouldn't be too cold in the capital with 8C forecast.

The southerly front was expected to disperse before hitting the top half of the North Island.

Yesterday, high winds blew two camper vans off the road near Mt Cook.