Beach spots on Waikato coasts prep for best summer in decades

Friday, 22 December 2017

It's the best start to Summer some people have seen in decades.

Campgrounds, beach shops and ice-cream sales are thriving as town folk flock to celebrate summer.

While a hot, dry start to summer has been a headache for farmers, it's not bothering most people.

Raglan town is reaping in the perks of an unusually hot and dry start to Summer.

In fact, for beach-goers, it's the most promising North Island summer in decades.

And beach-dwelling businesses are making the most of it.

Ian Hardie, who owns a farm and cruise business, says the quick start to Summer is bad news for farmers but great for beach-goers.

Nationwide stock of some Tip Top icecreams might be limited to make sure production of Christmas basics like creamy vanilla don't slow down.

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The quick start to Summer means Hamilton city folk are flocking to the Raglan.

Raglan Harbour Cruises owner Ian Hardie said business has been booming all over Raglan as people flee the cities.

'The beach-goers are all happy as,' Hardie said. 'I've never seen it like this. I've been here 40 years and I've never seen it quite as dry as this.

'I own a farm as well, so I'm sort of caught between two things.

'It's almost like we've had an extra month and a half of summer already.'

The hot weather has people rushing to the ice cream cabinets - Tip Top's sales are already up 25 per cent from last year.

And the company is having to reduce the production of Goody Goody Gum Drops, Cookies and Cream and Grapefruit Frujus to keep up with the demand of favourites like Trumpets, popsicles and its classic vanilla to go with Christmas desserts.

Fish 'n' chips are flying out the door, too.

Business can triple from Boxing Day onwards as long as the weather is good, Raglan Fish manager Stan Grime said.

'We triple our staff as well,' Grime said.

'If it's wet, we don't get the day travellers. It makes a big difference. You'd probably lose 30 per cent of business [without] those day travellers.

Niwa forecaster Ben Noll agreed it has been unusually hot.

'It's certainly above average for the time of year, so these are good things.

'In general terms, temperatures are meant to remain above average for the most part over the next couple of weeks for New Zealand in general and especially the North Island,' Noll said. 'That's a good thing, overall, if you want to go to the beach.'

Twenty days into December, Hamilton Ruakura was heading for one of the warmest Decembers since records began in 1906, with a mean temperature of 19.4C.

Whatawhata - the closest official temperature reading to Raglan - is on track for the warmest December on record since records there began in 1952. At 19.6C, it's much higher than last year's 17.2C.

Northern Waikato had some of the driest soil in the country compared to normal.

And unlike last year, the sea is warm, especially on the West Coast.

'The last couple of years, seemingly the best part of summer has been in the latter half, in February and maybe March. But this year we've had such a quick start,' Noll said.

It's caught everyone by surprise in the Coromandel region, too, after last year's flop of a summer, Opoutere Coastal Camping manager Sarah Kunac said.

'Last year, summer didn't really happen. And there were a lot of floods.

'The weather has definitely increased our profits with the amount of people coming. And ice creams have been flying out the door. All those little things and we're not used to that.

'I've been speaking to a few businesses in town and their numbers have doubled as well.

'At this time of year, we don't usually have these type of numbers.

'We were like 90 per cent [full], which is not normal. It's usually like 30 or 40.'

'[Campers] can't get over it. They've really scored with the weather, big time.'