Ngahuia Hona-Paku has a soak. Secret Spot Hot Tubs plan to make their typically hot pools cold. Photo / Stephen Parker
Ngahuia Hona-Paku has a soak. Secret Spot Hot Tubs plan to make their typically hot pools cold. Photo / Stephen Parker
Rotorua is famous for it hot pools but with another scorching weekend on the way a local hot tub company is turning down the temperature.
It is just one of the ways the Bay of Plenty is preparing to cope with an incoming heatwave expected to bring highs of 30Cand beyond over the next five days.
MetService meteorologist Tom Adams said a combination of minimal winds, a humid air mass and high pressure meant the next few days were set to be hot.
A slab of humid air from Australia and the tropics was forecast to roll in this weekend, pushing Bay temperatures through the roof.
Although the temperatures were high, Rotorua would be a little cooler than the rest of the region as it was "higher up and more inland", said Adams.
Bay residents and holidaymakers were also in for sweaty nights.
Adams said night temperatures across the Bay of Plenty were sitting in the mid- to late-teens. Anything around 20C was not an ideal sleeping temperature for most people.
The scorching temperatures were set to stick around until next Wednesday when the heating dial was predicted to turn down a notch.
In the meantime, however, businesses are tailoring their offerings for a hot clientele.
Crowds beat the heat at Tikitapu (Blue Lake). Photo / File
The Landing Cafe, a popular spot at Lake Tarawera, was preparing for a busy weekend of scooping ice cream.
Manager Leanne Cunningham said the hotter it got, the more people headed out to the lake spots for ice cream.
She said their real fruit ice cream was "hugely popular" and they could end up making upwards of 50 swirls on a hot day.
In terms of ice cream tubs, the shop was expecting to scoop through about 20 to 30 large tubs over the whole weekend, she said.
On the other side of town, Secret Spot Hot Tubs was planning a "heatwave special" from Sunday to keep business up over the period.
Owner Keith Kolver said they would be turning down the temperatures of the tubs to 30C, down from their usual 38C to 40C, for a week and offering cold beverages while people soaked, he said.
Secret Spot Hot Tubs plan to make heir typically hot pools cold. Photo / Stephen Parker
Federated Farmers Bay of Plenty president Darryl Jensen said the "summer dry was starting to bite" and things were getting tough for farmers.
Minimal rainfall and high temperatures meant many farmers were having to put systems in place to feed the demand that was a lot greater than supply, he said.
Niwa had forecast no substantial rainfall in the coming weeks and Jensen said drought conditions could be on the doorstep soon.
"Regardless of whether you believe in climate change or not, things are changing."
He said farmers were experiencing major variability and extremes from long hot and dry conditions to excessively wet periods were becoming common.
Building resilient communities in this time was front of mind for many farming organisations, he said.
Fire and Emergency New Zealand Pumicelands principal rural fire officer Steve Webb said the fire danger across the Bay of Plenty was "extreme" and warned that something as simple as mowing the lawn could spark a serious fire.
Webb said a complete fire ban will be put in place at the beginning of next week.
The last time a fire ban was put in place was February, but the ban this year was earlier due to the conditions, he said.
People needed to practice extra caution at the hottest points of the day and also consider whether there was a breeze that could spread a fire quickly.
FORECAST:
Rotorua
Today : Fine. Westerlies. High of 27C, low of 16C.
Tomorrow: Fine and hot. Westerlies. High of 30C, low of 15C.
Sunday: Fine and warm. Westerlies. High of 27C, low of 16C.
