NZ Vs UK Climate Comparisons

[Tee&Dee]

Hi all

Quick question, dumb as it may be..

How does the NZ climate compare to what we are used to in the UK.
I have done my homework and looked at a number of weather charts but what Im really looking for is a real human opinion, since the temperatures dont seem to be as wildly different as say in Australia.

Me and the family currently live in North Yorkshire (Im originally from Northumberland) and try as might I cant really get a feel for the weather in NZ.

We are hopefully looking towards Wellington, so any insights would be much appreciated.

Thanks
Tee

[dave k]

Well I'm over in Wellington from N.Yorks. In short Climate here = much nicer!
Kiwis tend to think that Welly has rubbish weather...but compared to Yorkshire it's glorious. The main thing for me is you get a lot more sunshine here, even in the depths of winter.
Summer seems to last a lot longer with pretty good weather from Nov to about March/April. And you get lots of days where it's clear, hot & sunny ALL day - instead of 20 mins in the morning then clouding over to stay grey & humid all day. Like it tends to do in York.
The main caveat to this is that it's terrifically windy at times as I'm sure you already know...but I don't really mind that. Keeps things fresh.
AND it can feel much colder inside in Winter because of the lack of heating, but temperature-wise outside it rarely drops below freezing.

Hope that helps!

[Sunshine20]

The climate in NZ in Wellington is no where near is hot or dry as Sydney or Melbourne. If sun and warm weather (i.e. beach weather) is a big factor think again about Wellington. Auckland is very wet - loads more rain than London, more hours of sunshine but loads more rain. We have been here three years in NZ and are off to Oz partly due to wanting a better climate - this is a popular reason to head over the Tasman for many Kiwis - you are warned.

[sarahw]

We've been very pleasantly surprised by the climate - I think if you do a search on www.weather.co.uk you'll find climate statistics. Try searching for both the town you're looking to move to in NZ and the town you live in the UK on and compare...

Welly is dryer than Auckland but Auckland is warmer. Sunshine hours seem pretty good & in no way does a NZ winter compare with a UK one (in a good way!). I wear more clothes out here in winter than I did at home since a lot of places (including my office) have no heating - so 12 degrees feels nothing like 12 degrees in the UK! That said - its never been too cold for us to take a walk on the beach or go out for the day. Rain-wise its not been terribly rainy so far this last 6 months - you tend to get very heavy downpours & in general they seem to have been mostly at night. That's not to say you don't get rainy days but its nothing like the UK where you can have weeks of rainy grey days - you have it broken up with bright blue skies and wonderful sunny days.

Weather compared with UK gets a big thumbs up from me & I'm looking forward to the summer - if you're looking for a hot climate then NZ probably isn't for you but if you're just looking for a better overall climate and longer summers than the UK then you're fine!

[Moorf]

Down here in Chch it's certainly colder than the UK winters (and we lived in Scotland!), but this is offset by blues skies and warmth in the sun. Cold, frosty crisp mornings (and I mean COLD!!) learn how to stop down the fire before you go to bed! Very little rain (at least so far!). Seems drier here than anywhere else. Very little wind.

Summer was lovely - not as hot as Oz, and not humid. Hot sun. Temps c. 25degs.

[GeorgeM]

Down here in Chch it's certainly colder than the UK winters

I have to disagree with you here Moorf - winters may seem colder than in the UK because of the differences in buildings (no CH, DG, poor insulation etc) but there is no way that a Salisbury winter was warmer than a Chch one.

Where we lived, on the edge of the New Forest, I would frequently have to clear the windscreen of really thick ice/frost every day for a week or more. In three and a half Sumner winters I've done this fewer than 5 times.

And as you note, when the sun is shining it can be very warm - the week before last (the equivalent of Christmas week in the UK) Rolleston recorded 21 degrees one day!

[Moorf]

Sorry thought I'd put on the post that we lived in Scotland which is, is it not, part of the UK - I'll make it clearer next time to avoid confusion! :

Personally, we find it colder here than the UK... better?

[GeorgeM]

I thought that we were all expressing personal opinions

My (personal) expectation would have been that Salisbury (in the soft South) would have been considerably warmer than Scotland, so therefore if I found Chch to be warmer than Salisbury by extension I would expect it to be even warmerer (!) than Scotland. All spoken with very little experience of Scotland of course (apart from a couple of business visits to pharmaceutical plants just outside Glasgow a decade and a half ago)...

I really am very surprised that you find Chch colder than Scotland, but you're the one with that experience so I'm not arguing...

[Moorf]

Yep, we were surprised too, and I keep being told by grinning locals that it isn't winter yet and it gets colder than this during July and August :eek

The weather channel has our location in Scotland and here as "comparable", definitely sunnier here but get out of that sun and brrrr!

[adamsat]

After the initial shock the winter weather here seems a lot better. (ok it's only been 4 weeks!).

Rangiora does seem to get things a little better the Chch itself, and compared to SE Essex the winter seems fantastic. I can't ever remember being able to wear a T-shirt on Southend beach in January, but on a clear day you can certainly do that at Wood End at this time of year.

The fog has been a surpise though, especially last Thurdsay when my flight returned to Wellington after two aborted attempts to land at Chch airport :eek