It's a breeze without rain, cold

Whether it's wet or dry can be the difference of 50 litres of fuel a day for self-employed logging contractor Shayne Hossack.

That's how much of an impact the rain can have on the pulling power when retrieving fallen logs.

Mr Hossack said he lost four days in June due to the rain, but in July he only lost work when the logging prices dropped.

"The drier the days the more we can pull," he said.

"This past month it's been quite mild and we've not had much rain. We save money when it's drier.

"Running a machine to try to pull the logs out I'll use a whole tank of fuel when there's a foot of mud. That's 100 litres of diesel. Other days we'll use half a tank if it's dry."

He said winter was a rough time anyway due to less daylight, meaning they couldn't start work at 7am as normal due to the darkness.

"Three weeks ago we weren't starting until 7.30 but you still have to pay your men 30 minutes for nothing, that's part of logging."

He said he hoped the rest of winter was "nice and dry" but accepted whatever would happen.

"It will be what it will be. You can't change it."

Rotorua swimming coach Henk Greupink said the mild winter conditions had made his work "a breeze".

"I'm standing outside six days a week from 5.30am. It's been so pleasant. I'm dressed for the occasion but most of the time I've been over-dressed.

"The past two weeks have been the coldest in the mornings - one morning it was still -3C at pooldeck and there was a frost on the starting blocks."

Mr Greupink coaches a variety of swimmers all year round under the United Aquatic Sports and Te Arawa Swimming banners. "It [the mild winter] has made coaching really pleasant and you get so much more work done. It's been so mild that for the past two weeks I've coached my afternoon sessions in shorts."