Your weather: Last of the sun before Easter storms hit and Cyclone Harold hammers Pacific

Autumn is here, with a few cracking days of weather - before things take a turn at Easter.

Metservice forecaster Sonja Farmer says we're in for a few good days before heavy rain ushers in the long weekend.

A front moves northwards across northern Westland this morning, then Buller and western Nelson this afternoon and evening, bringing a brief burst of heavy rain. There is a low risk of embedded thunderstorms with this front, as indicated on the chart.

No thunderstorms or significant convection expected elsewhere in New Zealand today

Aucklanders will see 21C in the City of Sails on Wednesday, with patches of cloud and a sprinkle of isolated showers in the morning, becoming more widespread in the afternoon.

The rain - courtesy of a front working it's way up the North Island - is expected to be short lived as the front continues its journey north.

Tuesday's emojicast:

🌤
🌤
🌤🌤
🌤🌤🌤🌤
🌤🌤🌤🌤
🌤🌤🌤
☁️🌤
🌤

🌧🌧
🌧🌦
🌧🌧☁️ 🌧
🌦🌤
🌦🌦🌧
🌦🌦🌧
🌦

— NIWA Weather (@NiwaWeather) April 6, 2020

A front working it's way up the North Island tomorrow will bring some showers to the east, before heading to the top of the island on Tuesday evening.

It will bring rain to the west of the North Island, spreading to the west as it moves northwards.

Southwest winds trailing behind the front will perhaps bring cooler overnight temperatures with it, but nothing unusual for this time of year, Farmer said.

Auckland will drop down to 14C overnight on Tuesday.

Wellingtonians will awake to early morning rain on Tuesday, later clearing to fine spells with southerly winds.

A high of 17C is expected in the capitol tomorrow, Farmer said.

The pick of the country today was the South Island - with a balmy 25C recorded in Ashburton and 24C in Christchurch on Monday.

But milder 16C is expected in the two on Tuesday, Farmer said.

The South Island will see fairly fine weather on Wednesday, with a few morning showers across Fiordland, and clear skies through the Canterbury high country.

Come Thursday, the skies will darken, with most of New Zealand - particularly the west coast - was expected to be hit with gale-force winds due to a "very low pressure" edging closer from the Southern Ocean.

Wet and Windy this weekend!
Friday looks like the best bet for a backyard Easter egg hunt. A significant weather feature brings strong winds and a period of heavy rain to most of the country over the weekend. Keep up with the latest forecasts at https://t.co/hnwmGxU1gR ^Lewis pic.twitter.com/qH5ozsDFeF

— MetService (@MetService) April 7, 2020

WeatherWatch forecasters say by Sunday evening gusts could reach over 120km/h in some exposed places, "possibly even over 150km/h in some very extreme exposed areas in the south" - so you might as well stay home.

While Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has assured Kiwi kids the Easter Bunny was still in operation during the lockdown, encouraging kids to pop egg artworks in their windows, kids out on an egg hunt may need to don their gumboots and raincoats.

View this post on Instagram

This is a message for the kids of New Zealand. I’ve been asked by lots of you whether the Tooth Fairy and the Easter Bunny are an essential service (I even got asked in a press conference today!) I have good news, the are! But because we’re all in isolation at the moment, the Easter Bunny might not make it to every house this year (they probably have to look after their own Bunny family too). So just in case, I’m wondering if you’ll help me create an Easter egg hunt for all the children in your neighbourhood? You can draw your own Easter egg, or you can colour in the one that some of my clever friends helped to make. All you have to do is colour it in or decorate it, and pop it in your window for other kids to find. I'd also love to see your designs. If you email them to primeminister@parliament.govt.nz, or share them on social media using the hashtag #NZEggHunt, I'll pop a few of them here and on Facebook over the Easter weekend. Have fun everyone! P.S you can print a copy of this colouring sheet over on my Facebook page.

A post shared by Jacinda Ardern (@jacindaardern) on Apr 6, 2020 at 1:52am PDT

In the Pacific, mammoth Cyclone Harold has torn through the Vanuatu Islands, with winds up to 200km/h close to its centre, Farmer said.

Harold, now tracking towards Fiji, is expected to slowly weaken to a category four cyclone on Wednesday.

Category 5 Tropical #CycloneHarold has moved east of #Vanuatu.#Fiji: Harold will track just south of Viti Levu on Wednesday with heavy rain and strong winds likely. Significant impacts are possible in Kadavu Island. pic.twitter.com/u0knruepU4

— Island Climate Update (@ICU_NIWA) April 6, 2020

Heavy rain, flooding, large waves and storm to hurricane-force winds are expected to affect parts of Fiji, the Metservice website said.

It is expected to continue moving east-southeast and pass close to southern Tonga as a category 3 cyclone on Thursday, then move out of the tropics late Thursday or early Friday.