Waking up “stinking hot” and “disgusting” is a feeling Kiwi summer campers know all too well.
Jenny Harris remembers it well – when it’s not even 8am and the tent’s thin nylon walls are holding in heat like a furnace, so a nice holiday lie-in is simply not an option.
Harris, from Hamilton, was grateful her family had set up camp in the shade at Rotorua Blue Lake Top 10 Holiday Park this year.
She said those in tents baking in the sun might not be feeling as comfortable when a wave of expected hot weather arrives this weekend.
MetService meteorologist Mmathapelo Makgabutlane said Rotorua was forecast to reach 27C on Friday, before climbing to 28C on Saturday and back to 27C on Sunday. Tauranga and Whakatāne were forecast to hit 30C.
Makgabutlane said the “very warm temperatures” in the Bay of Plenty were the result of a “warm mass of air” moving over from Australia and could trigger MetService heat alerts.
The weekend’s hottest temperatures were expected in Hawke’s Bay on Sunday, with 37C forecast for Hastings.
The record high temperature for Rotorua is 31.5C and has stood since January 11, 1983.
Harris said the “beauty” of camping at Blue Lake (Lake Tikitapu) was that it felt a bit “cooler” than other regions, such as her home base in Hamilton.
She said a friend at home had reported it was already “too hot” at 7am to be out walking, but Harris had her hiking boots on ready to hit the Blue Lake loop.
She said the wind would make the about 5km trail bearable.
Fellow campers Camille Reboul, from Auckland, and Dean Blair, from Wellington, had arrived the night before and were preparing for a bike ride around the lake.
Blair said finding shade when camping in the summer could be a challenge, and tents could get “really hot” if stuck in the sun.
He tended to get up bright and early to avoid the tent sauna, with the pair swimming in the lake by 8am.
Blair said he often chose campsites like the Blue Lake Top 10 where he could “cool off” by swimming or mountain bike under the trees.
Christina Joe, who was visiting Rotorua this week with her family from Hamilton, stopped for ice cream at Lady Jane’s Ice Cream Parlour as they paced their day around enjoying the “nice” sunshine.
Alexas Dabalos, a staff member at TearifficNZ, a food truck on the city’s lakefront known for its drinks and desserts, said the sunny weather this week had brought a noticeable lift in customers.
Dabalos described the past few days as “so busy”, with people stopping in for cold, refreshing drinks to offset the heat.
Milk tea and non-dairy options were especially popular in the heat.
January was typically the busiest month, and this week already felt like one of the “hottest” so far.
Dabalos expected business to continue booming with the weekend heat.
Annabel Reid is a multimedia journalist for the Bay of Plenty Times and Rotorua Daily Post, based in Rotorua. Originally from Hawke’s Bay, she has a Bachelor of Communications from the University of Canterbury.