Much of the country had a frosty start with a second day of cold overnight and early morning temperatures.
MetService had warned Kiwis to "wrap up warm" and prepare for freezing overnight temperatures as a cold snap swept across the country, and prompted some areas to record their coldest day so far this year.
MetService meteorologist John Law told Breakfast that areas such as Hamilton and Whitianga had their "coldest night of the year", with the former recording –3.8C overnight.
"So, cold and frosty up through the Waikato, but by no means is that the only spot seeing those cold and frosty conditions," he added.
He said Desert Rd took out the coldest overnight spot in New Zealand, dropping to –7C.
"Not quite as cold as it has been in the South Island. In saying that though, Pukaki got down to about –5C last night. But not quite the same temperatures we saw on Sunday night."
He said Christchurch dropped to –2C throughout the night.
Asked what was driving these cold conditions, Law said “perfect conditions over the weekend", with the return of cold, southerly air feeding up across the country.
"As the high pressure goes over the top, it brings clear sky and light winds."
He said the light winds keep that cold air "right down close to the ground and just gets colder".
“It's great for the daytime, nice, good blue skies and sunshine, but once that sun sets, [temperatures] start to really drop away," he explained.
Looking ahead, Law said temperatures would pick back up for many spots.
“So overnight, tomorrow night, and more especially at night, certain temperatures back up above that freezing.”
He said this would be caused by stronger northwesterly winds and some more cloud, with some “slightly milder air feeding back in from the north and the west”.
“After that, I think last a few days of July, cold air comes back up from the south. So another return to colder temperatures as we go through towards the weekend and the start of next week.”
Transpower NZ told RNZ the cold weather had led to a record electricity demand, with Monday's peak demand of 7141 MW recording an all-time record.
The electricity company said it was working with the electricity sector to increase the amount of electricity that is available.
"We aren't anticipating any impact on power supply to homes or businesses," said operations manager Chantelle Bramley.
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