Tight race for the sunshine crown as summer looms

Kira Carrington, Local Democracy Reporter

The race for sunniest region of the year is heating up with 45 hours of sunshine between the top three, and weeks of the competition left to go.

Earth Sciences NZ, formerly Niwa, said in its October climate report that Taranaki was in the lead with 2150 sunshine hours this year to date, followed by wider Nelson including Richmond with 2126 hours, and Marlborough in third with 2105 hours.

Marlborough currently holds the crown, as the sunniest region of 2024.

Marlborough mayor Nadine Taylor said she had every confidence the region could regain the lead and take the crown again.

“It’s a very tight race at the top there. So it sounds to me like it’s going to be a photo finish,” Taylor said.

“I’m sure that there's every chance that we may take it again this year.

“It’s going to be the summer that brings it all together.”

Marlborough won sunniest region of 2024 with 2769 hours, beating wider Nelson by only nine hours, and Bay of Plenty taking bronze.

Taylor had wagered a bottle of wine on the 2024 crown with Nelson mayor Nick Smith.

“I’m up for that wager again,” Taylor said.

“I think Marlborough has a very good chance, so I'll put in a bottle of good Marlborough wine on that.”

Smith said he was surprised Nelson was in second considering the winter’s “horrific weather”.

“But I’m forever the optimist, the race is looking quite tight and [I’m] looking forward to collecting the wine off Mayor Taylor.

“I’d be more than happy to consume some Marlborough wine in the good cause of parochialism.”

Wider Nelson’s last victory was in 2019, in a dream run of three consecutive wins, although not without controversy.

A new gauge installed in Richmond in 2016, which won the title in 2017, 2018 and 2019, had been called by some a cynical attempt to retain the title of sunniest place, as it was placed 3.9km from the Nelson gauge. In 2018, Niwa decided the gauge’s results could be considered representative of the “wider Nelson region”.

Taranaki, on the other hand, won the sunshine crown in 2021 and 2022, and had been in the lead since the start of the year.

New Plymouth mayor Max Brough said it wasn’t even a competition, and the chances of a Taranaki victory were “110%”.

“There was an aberration last year, someone took it off us. Two years previous to that, we were clear winners,” Brough said.

Taranaki let Marlborough win last year because they couldn’t afford to send everyone a box of tissues, he said.

“Because you guys were crying pretty hard.

“[But] you guys better get used to this. This is the new normal.”

Brough’s message to Smith and Taylor was to “bring it on”, and he was willing to bet some Egmont manuka honey on Taranaki’s victory.

Taylor said it would be good to keep the title in the top of the south.

“We've got two chances out of three, and I think it would be wonderful to see it come to the top of the south again,” she said.

“We do know that obviously Marlborough is the best place in New Zealand, but if you had to have a good second-best then Nelson Tasman.”

The stakes were high as several regions liked to boast that they were the country’s sunniest.

Blenheim’s welcome sign proudly proclaimed it “New Zealand’s sunniest place”.

Taylor said the meaning behind Blenheim’s sign was greater than just the sunshine race.

“We do know that Marlborough certainly is one of the most beautiful sunny places in New Zealand.

“The old whakataukī ‘Ke Puta Te Wairau’, the sun always shines on the Wairau, is the one that comes to my mind. And that’s the one that you’ll also see at the entranceway on the Ōpaoa Bridge.”

LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.