Hello,
My wife and I are considering a trip to New Zealand, with time to be spent in Auckland, Matamata area, and Queenstown/Milford Sound area. We are thinking of going in September, but I'm worried it might be too cold to really enjoy being outside. We are in our 30s/40s, and travel a lot in the northern hemisphere, but we've never been to the southern hemisphere. We like walking outside in parks and natural settings and sight-seeing, )but we don't do much in the way of sports or adrenaline activities.)

Can anyone tell me what the weather is really like in NZ in September? I know it's early spring there at that time, but will the grasses be green by early/mid September? Will the flowers be blooming yet? How windy is it in the areas I've mentioned? What kind of precipitation is typical for those areas in September?

This is my first time posting to Fodors' Forms: thanks in advance for any insights.
Cheers!

We toured both the northern and southern islands from early September through mid-October and for the most part experienced fantastic weather. In 6 weeks of travel we had only 3 or 4 days when it rained for part of the day of the day and only one day when it rained all day.

Most days temperatures ranged between the low 60’s F to the mid-70’s. It will be cooler in the mountainous areas. We had a couple of colder days where daytime temps dropped into the low high 30’s and low 40’s F.

We spent the bulk of our time outdoors and enjoyed every minute of it. And, yes, the grass was green and many flowers were in bloom. With the exception of only 2 days, I don’t recall winds being so strong that they deterred us from doing any outdoor activity.

We had days when we were comfortable in short sleeves, other days when long sleeves or sweaters were more appropriate and days when a jacket was necessary.

We did do a whale watching to tour where it was breezy and “cold” but the tour company provided us with appropriate warm coveralls that kept us comfortable.

For us, the weather was almost perfect.

We've visited the South Island in September a few times - we've had spectacular - and abysmal weather. Expect anything. Here are the grisly details:

The Earth Makes Music for Those Who Listen; Siblings on the South Island

https://www.fodors.com/community/aus...and-nz-992354/