Welly weather – it’s the bomb
A spring nip in the air was not enough to put a few hardy Wellington swimmers off taking their first swim of spring.
At Days Bay in Lower Hutt – from where snow could be seen on the South Island’s Kaikoura range – Josh Ormsby jumped off the wharf multiple times, while others shivered at the sight.
‘‘It’s not too bad after a few jumps,’’ Ormsby, of Taita, said. ‘‘I went for a swim last week and it was colder then.’’
Wainuiomata reached a high of 21.1 degrees Celsius on Sunday, while other parts of Lower Hutt, and Kelburn in Wellington, reached 17C, MetService forecaster Tom Adams said.
But Wellington Airport, facing the cold southerly breeze, managed only a high of 14C at 2pm on Sunday.
Joe Moon, of Upper Hutt, with stepchildren Quinton Haywood, 14, and Nikita Haywood, 13, braved the chilling wind for their first swim of the season.
‘‘To start with it was damn cold. It’s not bad now,’’ Moon said.
Olivia Harvey, 13, from Wainuiomata, managed one jump from the wharf for her first swim of spring.
‘‘I couldn’t breathe. The coldness just got to me,’’ she said.
MetService was forecasting another fine day in Wellington for Labour Day, with an 18C high, northerlies, but with some rain possible tonight.
The National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research’s outlook till December says temperatures are expected to be above average in Wellington, Wairarapa, Hawke’s Bay, Gisborne, Manawatu, Whanganui, Taranaki, and central North Island.