What is the wettest place in New Zealand?

The West Coast of the South Island, comfortably. The Cropp River gauge above Hokitika once recorded 16,617 mm in a single year, among the highest rainfall measured anywhere on Earth, and well over sixteen times what falls on Auckland.

Where is the sunniest place in New Zealand?

The top of the South Island. Richmond, near Nelson, holds the national record at 2,859 hours of sunshine in 2019, with Nelson and Blenheim close behind most years. Whakatāne carries the flag for the North Island.

Is Wellington really the windiest city?

It is the windiest city anyone lives in, yes. The single strongest gust on record, 250 km/h, was actually at Mt John in Canterbury, with Wellington's Hawkins Hill just behind at 248 km/h. The capital sits in a wind funnel between two landmasses, which is why the locals have strong opinions and very good raincoats.

What are the hottest and coldest places?

Both records sit in the South Island. Rangiora in Canterbury hit 42.4°C in 1973, while Ranfurly in Central Otago dropped to -25.6°C back in 1903. Central Otago does both extremes, sometimes in the same week.

Why does the weather change so much over short distances?

The Southern Alps. They force the westerly winds to dump their rain on the West Coast and leave the eastern side dry, so you can drive from temperate rainforest to near-desert in an afternoon.

Where does this data come from?

The national climate records held by NIWA, now part of Earth Sciences New Zealand, through its long-run station data and annual climate summaries. The figures are by weather station and town, which is why we rank places rather than every single suburb.

The sunniest, wettest and windiest places in New Zealand

A wind turbine on a Wellington hilltop at dusk — Image: Tony Wills, via Wikimedia Commons

Every New Zealander believes their region has the worst weather, and most of them are wrong. Wellingtonians wear the wind like a medal. West Coasters treat rain as a personality trait. Aucklanders complain about humidity to anyone who will stand still long enough. We decided to settle the arguments with evidence, so we went to the national climate records and ranked the country by sunshine, rain, wind, heat and cold. Some of the results will vindicate you. Most will not.

Why the country can't agree on the weather

The reason is a mountain range. The Southern Alps stand sideways to the prevailing westerly winds and wring them dry on the way up, which produces a genuinely absurd outcome: the wettest place in the country and one of the driest sit barely 100 kilometres apart. The West Coast catches the lot, with the Cropp River in the hills above Hokitika logging rainfall measured in metres rather than millimetres. Cross the divide into Central Otago and it is so dry it grows apricots. Sunshine is mostly a top-of-the-South affair, where Nelson, Richmond and Blenheim trade the crown, although Whakatāne and New Plymouth keep the North Island in the argument. Wind, predictably, files its complaint in Wellington. And the whole country has been running warm lately: 2025 was New Zealand's fourth-warmest year on record and produced the warmest November ever measured, so today's "normal" is a little balmier than your grandparents' was.

The receipts: rainfall

The West Coast does not so much get rain as host it. One gauge, the Cropp River above Hokitika, holds nearly every record worth holding, while the country's dry corner sits over the hills in Central Otago and Marlborough.

Record	Figure	Where	When
Wettest calendar year	16,617 mm	Cropp River, West Coast	1998
Wettest 365-day stretch	18,413 mm	Cropp River, West Coast	1997 to 1998
Wettest single day	869 mm	Cropp River, West Coast	2013
Driest calendar year	212 mm	Alexandra, Central Otago	1964
Longest dry spell	71 days with no rain	Wai-iti, Marlborough	1939

For scale, 16,617 mm in a year is more than sixteen times what Auckland sees and roughly twenty times Christchurch. The Cropp River is not a town, mercifully. Nobody lives in the rain machine.

The receipts: sunshine

Sunshine is the title every region wants, and the top of the South Island usually walks away with it. The national record belongs to Richmond, just outside Nelson, which is the most plausible reason to move there.

Record	Figure	Where	When
Sunniest year, national record	2,859 hours	Richmond, near Nelson	2019
Sunniest year, North Island	2,792 hours	Whakatāne	2013
Sunniest single month	359 hours	New Plymouth	January 2022
Gloomiest year, South Island	971 hours	Franz Josef	1991
Gloomiest year, North Island	1,357 hours	Palmerston North	1992

Note the gap. Richmond in a good year sees almost three times the sunshine Franz Josef managed in a bad one, and the two are a few hours' drive apart. Geography, again, doing the heavy lifting.

The receipts: wind, heat and cold

Wellington owns the reputation, but the single strongest gust ever recorded was over the hill from Lake Tekapo. The temperature extremes both belong to the South Island, which feels unfair until you remember it contains both the country's hottest plains and its coldest hollows.

Record	Figure	Where	When
Strongest gust, national	250 km/h	Mt John, Canterbury	1970
Strongest gust, North Island	248 km/h	Hawkins Hill, Wellington	1959 and 1962
Hottest day	42.4°C	Rangiora, Canterbury	1973
Coldest day	-25.6°C	Ranfurly, Central Otago	1903
Coldest ground frost	-21.6°C	Lake Tekapo	1938

So Wellington is not technically the windiest spot in the country, only the windiest place anyone actually chooses to live, which the locals will accept as a kind of victory.

The main centres, more or less settled

If you only care about the big six, 2025 produced a fairly predictable scoreboard. Month after month, Tauranga and Auckland traded the warmest and sunniest titles, Christchurch was repeatedly the coolest and driest, Wellington and Hamilton picked up the wettest tag between them, and Dunedin spent much of the year as the least sunny, which Dunedin residents will tell you they already knew and have made peace with. None of this is destiny. A single big system can flip a month. But over a full year, the pattern holds about as reliably as the small talk built on top of it.

Frequently asked questions

What is the wettest place in New Zealand?: The West Coast of the South Island, comfortably. The Cropp River gauge above Hokitika once recorded 16,617 mm in a single year, among the highest rainfall measured anywhere on Earth, and well over sixteen times what falls on Auckland.
Where is the sunniest place in New Zealand?: The top of the South Island. Richmond, near Nelson, holds the national record at 2,859 hours of sunshine in 2019, with Nelson and Blenheim close behind most years. Whakatāne carries the flag for the North Island.
Is Wellington really the windiest city?: It is the windiest city anyone lives in, yes. The single strongest gust on record, 250 km/h, was actually at Mt John in Canterbury, with Wellington's Hawkins Hill just behind at 248 km/h. The capital sits in a wind funnel between two landmasses, which is why the locals have strong opinions and very good raincoats.
What are the hottest and coldest places?: Both records sit in the South Island. Rangiora in Canterbury hit 42.4°C in 1973, while Ranfurly in Central Otago dropped to -25.6°C back in 1903. Central Otago does both extremes, sometimes in the same week.
Why does the weather change so much over short distances?: The Southern Alps. They force the westerly winds to dump their rain on the West Coast and leave the eastern side dry, so you can drive from temperate rainforest to near-desert in an afternoon.
Where does this data come from?: The national climate records held by NIWA, now part of Earth Sciences New Zealand, through its long-run station data and annual climate summaries. The figures are by weather station and town, which is why we rank places rather than every single suburb.

Methodology

The records here come from the National Climate Database, drawn from weather stations across mainland New Zealand and last reviewed by the climate agency in 2023, alongside the most recent annual climate summary. On 1 July 2025, NIWA merged with GNS Science to become Earth Sciences New Zealand, which now holds the data. Because measurements are taken at stations rather than in every suburb, this page ranks towns and locations, then links each to the nearest suburb pages, rather than pretending to measure rainfall on all 6,689 of them.