Since I’m not a New Zealander, I can’t really comment on this. Maybe you could share your thoughts…
Amid the climate crisis, my country was hit by a rare storm, and more than a thousand people lost their lives. There hasn’t been a rainy season or a dry season here since 2024; I’m not sure about this year because meteorologists are predicting a super El Niño in the mid of the year.
If the last four or so years are anything to go on we are in for some shit.
Just in this summer we have had 4 storms come through NZ where we have over 250mm of rain in 12-24 hours. It was estimated that there was 380mm of rain fall on the mountain (large hill by international standards) here at home in just 8 hours. That is 1/6th of our yearly rain falling in 1/2 a day
A few days ago, I read an article predicting that there will be more storms in mid-April around Southeast Asia and the Pacific Ocean. One of those storms was close to the northern part of NZ.