RWood43

A bit late - a new 48-hour record for rainfall in NZ was set at the Cropp Waterfall site in Westland (975m ASL) during a major rain event 25-27 March, which caused a lot of damage, including the washout of the bridge over the Waiho river at Franz Josef. Cropp recorded 1086.5mm from 09:12 on the 25th to the same time on the 27th, breaking its own record of 1061mm on 1-3 January 2013. https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/112018973/vital-waiho-river-bridge-reopens-reconnecting-recovering-west-coast Average annual rainfall at Cropp (1982-2018) was 11280mm, and there are certainly wetter spots that haven't been measured properly yet.

Coromandel could cop some very heavy rain around 2-3 January, depending on the trajectory of an ex-tropical low. http://about.metservice.com/homepagerss/

This thread (towards the end) gives some details. Impressive, but not as anomalous as the event on 7 February 1973 when 3 locations reached 42C (or rather, 42.4C, 42.3C and 41.6C, the latter at Christchurch Gardens). http://www.weatherforum.org.nz/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=5480&p=158504#p158504

This will be the first July in NZ with a temperature deficit since 2009. Not a reflection of the YTD status however.

There was more to it as well. A parcel of very warm dry air over central Australia travelled across the Tasman, with a definite separation line from a moister cooler marine layer below. Conseqently the air that arrived at the Alps was unusually warm before the fohn process even started. Helping a little further perhaps was the protracted rather dry spell for months since in the eastern regions, with soil temperatures above normal and also a prior succession of very warm days. Christchurch for example had already had 3-4 consecutive days in the 30s before 7/2/1973.