{"id":315388,"date":"2026-03-06T04:39:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-06T04:39:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/315388\/"},"modified":"2026-03-06T04:39:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-06T04:39:11","slug":"auckland-set-for-big-weekend-as-weather-plays-ball-summer-makes-fleeting-return","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/315388\/","title":{"rendered":"Auckland set for big weekend as weather plays ball, summer makes fleeting return"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"PeoplePeople heading out and about have been advised to slip, slop, slap and wrap this weekend. Photo \/ Sylvie Whinray <\/p>\n

T\u0101taki Auckland Unlimited director of destination Annie Dundas said it would be an \u201cabsolutely phenomenal weekend\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t see how anyone could miss anything happening this weekend.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere will be tens of thousands of people out and about.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dundas said hotels are \u201cfull and happy\u201d and tracking \u201cwell above average\u201d compared to this time last year, with occupancy rates this weekend at 85%. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s going to be mad and brilliant.\u201d<\/p>\n

The stellar weekend kicks off at 8pm, with the Warriors set to play Sydney\u2019s Roosters at Auckland\u2019s Go Media Stadium.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s followed tomorrow with Champions Day at Auckland\u2019s Ellerslie Racecourse from 11am and later in the day the Blues face the Crusaders with a 7pm kick-off at Eden Park.<\/p>\n

The weekend is capped off with Round the Bays and the Auckland FC v Perth Glory clash on Sunday, with forecasters advising people in Auckland to \u201cslip, slop, slap and wrap\u201d.<\/p>\n

Smorgasbord for south<\/p>\n

MetService head of weather news Heather Keats told Ryan Bridge TODAY the South Island is in for a smorgasbord of weather.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a return of northerlies [wind] in the south bringing higher temperatures, with Christchurch particularly shaping up to be scorching today.\u201d<\/p>\n

Christchurch and Dunedin will reach 27C while Timaru and \u014camaru are set to hit 28C.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a far difference from the start of the week, where many areas were sitting between 12 and 13 degrees\u201d.<\/p>\n

The highs will be short-lived, however; with a cold snap seeing cooler temperatures return from Monday.<\/p>\n

An orange heavy rain warning is in place for the South Island\u2019s Fiordland and Westland until 6pm on Saturday.<\/p>\n

\"AA heavy rain warning is in place for the South Island’s Fiordland and Westland until 6pm Saturday. Photo \/ Metservice<\/p>\n

Keats said New Zealand could be hit by the \u201ctail end\u201d of a tropical cyclone at the end of next week.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe uncertainty is there with variations in the model, so people can rest assured we are keeping an eye on it and will report when there is something to say.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"People heading out and about have been advised to slip, slop, slap and wrap this weekend. Photo \/…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":315389,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[806,51,30642,8834,18658,102463,2082,5338,111,139,69,10538,35478,72726,1527,1551,2022,213,14625,1961,4998,4767],"class_list":["post-315388","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-as","tag-auckland","tag-ball","tag-big","tag-bumper","tag-fleeting","tag-for","tag-makes","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-play","tag-plays","tag-prepares","tag-return","tag-set","tag-sport","tag-sports","tag-summer","tag-this","tag-weather","tag-weekend"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315388","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=315388"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315388\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/315389"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=315388"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=315388"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=315388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}