Temperatures have plummeted in the South Island with some places waking up to -6C on Sunday.
As May brings cooler autumn temperatures, Twizel saw a chilly morning with -6C at 7am, so did Lake Tekapo at -2C, Mount Cook at -1C and Fairlie at 1C.
The North Island was also cool on Sunday with Auckland 8.2C at 7am, Taupō 1C, Wellington 6C and Palmerston North 3.4C.
According to WeatherWatch, those frosty morning temperatures should warm to a "fairly mild" afternoon. Winds will be mostly south, south-west and south-east and light in most places except for exposed parts of the south and east coast of both main islands.
MetService says we're in for a cool dry week thanks to a ridge rolling over the country and sticking around for the next couple of days, meaning much of Aotearoa will see blue skies and light winds.
Looking ahead, Monday will be fine and warm for much of the North Island with Auckland seeing a high of 19C, Tauranga 20C, New Plymouth 18C, Wellington 16C and Hastings 19C
The South Island also gets a fine day with scattered cloud, Nelson a high of 17C, Christchurch 18C, Dunedin 19C and Queenstown 16C.
On Tuesday the North Island will see a cloudy day with isolated showers in the west. Fine in the east and north. For the South Island, it will be rain for the west and south but fine elsewhere with high cloud.
On Wednesday the North Island is cloudy with a few showers in the west from Taranaki to Kapiti but fine elsewhere. The South Island has showers in the west but clearing, fine elsewhere except for Stewart Island which gets showers.
Thursday will see a mostly cloudy day with patchy drizzle in the North Island south of Taihape but fine elsewhere. The South Island gets cloud and drizzle in Canterbury and Marlborough, fine elsewhere with Stewart Island seeing showers again.
On Friday cloud will increase for the North Island with a few showers developing in the north and east. The South Island will be mainly fine with showers developing in Fiordland.
WeatherWatch meteorologist Philip Duncan says overall the whole month of May looks to be a dry one.
"A lot of dry weather coming our way out of the Tasman Sea thanks to a dominating area of high pressure."
He says there'll be "fairly average" temperatures across the country and dryness has already seen droughts extended.
