Weather: New Zealanders urged to make most of weekend with rainband set to hit next week

Kiwis are being urged to "make the most of the settled weather" this weekend as a rainband heads towards the country on Monday.

Saturday sees a warm day around the country, with a few places are expected to approach 20C this afternoon.

But the fine weather is short-lived as a rain band is set to move in late on Sunday and cross over Aotearoa during Monday.

"A complex trough is forecast to move southeastwards across the country on Monday, bringing rain and strong north to northeast winds to many places, followed by unsettled northwesterlies through to Tuesday," MetService says.

"Another trough should approach New Zealand from the Tasman Sea on Wednesday and across the country during Thursday."

MetService says there is a low confidence of warning amounts of rain on Monday for northern and eastern parts of Northland, eastern parts of Auckland, Great Barrier Island, the northeast of Waikato including Coromandel Peninsula, Bay of Plenty and Mount Taranaki and also North Otago. However this increases to a moderate confidence for the ranges of eastern Bay of Plenty, as indicated on the chart.

There is also a low confidence of warning amounts of rain for northwest Tasman, the ranges of Westland south of Otira and Fiordland north of Doubtful Sound on Monday, and again during Wednesday and Thursday.

There is low confidence of warning amounts of rain for the ranges of Buller during Thursday.