New Zealand has had a fleeting taste of summer weather this weekend, with many eastern spots seeing temperatures soar over 30C – and a "dirty high" later next week is forecast to bring more of it.

A large ridge of high pressure over the country has delivered warm and mostly settled weather for most places this weekend.

"There were a number of places that eclipsed 30C yesterday, particularly around eastern and north Canterbury, Gisborne and Hawke's Bay," Niwa meteorologist Ben Noll said.

Yesterday's hottest maximum temperature – a balmy 32.6C - was recorded at Cheviot, and this afternoon, Canterbury was still sweltering in heat reaching over 31C.

Satellite image from polar orbiting MODIS satellites showing clear skies over the North Island of New Zealand and a mixed bag of cloud and sun over the South Island. Photo / NASA

"As we go into the new week, however, it does look like Monday will be a rather cool day in the South Island."

Christchurch was forecast to get maximum highs of 17C tomorrow and 19C on Tuesday and Wednesday, while Dunedin was forecast to see 18C tomorrow and Tuesday, and just 17C on Wednesday.

Wellington was also in for a milder few days, with highs hovering between 17C and 18C until Friday.

Further north, the cool change wouldn't be felt quite as keenly: Auckland, Hamilton, Whangarei and Tauranga were due to get highs in the mid-20s right throughout the week.

Toward the back end of the week, another ridge of high pressure was predicted to send temperatures climbing again – but not to extremes, Noll added.

"It's what we call a dirty high. It'll have little disturbances around the edges – for instance, around Thursday in Hawke's Bay and Gisborne, we're expecting to see an easterly flow, and those places might get some showers as well.

"Usually what we look for in a high is for these to slide to the east of the country – that's when you get those really warm west to north-west airflows," he said.

"But this system is going to be parked almost over the top of the country, or maybe a little to the west, and that's going to prevent us getting that really scorching heat.

"That's certainly not the worst thing in the world – people complain about how cool it's been lately, but if gets too hot, that's no fun either, so it's what you'd call a nice middle ground."

Looking further to the end of the month and beyond, Noll predicted a generally messy and unsettled pattern, as two climate drivers that have held sway over our weather – a long-positive, but now fading, Indian Ocean Dipole and a warm pool of water in the western Pacific – jostled for influence.

"We're still getting the last remnants of that positive Indian Ocean Dipole, and that's what's been giving us these unsettled westerlies."