The first official day of summer is tomorrow, and it's expected to get off to a cool and chilly start.
NIWA's latest climate outlook shows summer temperatures are likely to be above average for most of the country.
"With La Niña we tend to get more of these easterly winds and that is unusual because our weather, our air, generally comes from the west," NIWA's Chris Brandolino said.
There's a risk of dryness, particularly in parts of the South Island, including Otago, Southland and the West Coast.
The upper South Island could also see higher temperatures than average, which is good news for holidaymakers hitting the Tasman region.
However, it's not all sunshine on the horizon, as warmer than average seas could fuel some wet days.
"There's likely to be these extended periods where not a lot of rain happens and then we get these big dumps of rain, these significant rainfall events so we do have to be mindful that there could be some big rainfall events during summer," he said.
"The first 10, 14 days of December are going to be pretty cool, kind of chilly, but it's not going to define summer."
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