Much of the country is already experiencing day break just before 6 am. (Photo/ Getty)

New Zealand set for early starts over summer

Author: Newstalk ZB Staff,
Publish Date: Sun, 10 Dec 2017, 6:08am

You'll need your curtains drawn if you're planning on having a sleep in over the next few weeks.

New Zealand is experiencing its earliest sunrises, with day break happening just before 6am in most places.

Weather Watch head forecaster Philip Duncan said despite the early starts, it's still be a little while until the official longest day.

"We have the longest day of the year, which is the Summer Solstice and that's on December 22nd, and it might also be surprising to quite a few people that the latest sunsets actually come after that," Mr Duncan said.

He said that this is the reason why in January we have "big, long lovely evenings."

We can expect around 15 hours of sunlight on the Summer Solstice.

Mr Duncan said the further east you live, the earlier the sunshine will make an appearance - and it doesn't matter if you're in the north, rather than down south.

"Some areas in the North Island, like Wellington and up towards Gisborne, are actually a lot further East than say in Christchurch and Dunedin," he said.

"So even though they are further South, and usually have much longer daylight hours, the regions in the East are going to see the sun getting up a bit earlier."