Wairarapa certainly played its part in the record-breaking chill that gripped the country during May, with Martinborough plunged into gloom courtesy of a paltry 92 hours of sunshine.

Niwa senior climate scientist Georgina Griffiths said May "broke records from one end of the country to the other - it was the coldest May on record", and there was nothing much to toast in the South Wairarapa wine village, which registered 69 percent of normal sunshine hours for May - the lowest figure for the town since records began.

"In May, Martinborough was gray, gloomy and depressing," she said.

"In June, the east coast strips of both islands were gloomy while sun shone around the rest of the country, like Hamilton which had record sunshine hours," Ms Griffiths said.

Below normal June sunshine (75 - 90 percent of normal) blighted coastal Otago, coastal Canterbury and the East Cape, she said.

It was wet too with double the normal rainfall for May (about 200 percent of normal) in Wairarapa, Canterbury and Otago while much of Northland, Auckland, Wellington and Southland got at least 150 percent of normal May rainfall.

June didn't fare much better as Ngawi racked up a record low topping the mercury at just 6.6C on June 16 - the lowest daily maximum temperature on the books.

June 16 also marked the beginning of a 10-day anticyclone - a high that hung round the country with scant wind and clear skies; "all ingredients in a recipe for frost", Ms Griffiths said.

Wairarapa, alongside most of the lower North Island, experienced the second-coldest June in recorded history, with monitoring equipment in Ngawi and Martinborough clocking average maximum daytime temperatures of 11.6C and 11.9C respectively.

Ms Griffiths said these temperatures were 1.5C lower than what is typical for June - a pattern that was repeated across the lower North Island.

However, Ms Griffiths said the future was looking brighter across Wairarapa, Gisborne and Hawke's Bay with Niwa predicting a return to normal temperatures and from July to September.

June highlights

The highest temperature during June was 24.5C recorded at Henderson, Auckland, on the 29th. The lowest temperature during June was recorded at Hanmer Springs, with a minimum temperature of -8.9C.

The highest one-day rainfall total for June was 91.8 mm, recorded at Whitianga on the 28th.

The highest wind gust for June was 133kmh recorded at Stephens Island (Cook Strait) on the 28th.

Of the six main centres, Dunedin was the coldest and driest, Auckland was the warmest, Tauranga was the wettest, and Hamilton was the sunniest.

May highlights

The highest temperature during May was 23.0C recorded at Christchurch on the 16th.

The lowest temperature during May was recorded at Hanmer Forest on the 12th, where the minimum temperature was -7C.

The highest 1-day rainfall total for May was 321 mm recorded at Mt Cook on the 16th (the highest May one-day total for this location, since records began in 1928).

The wind gust of 167kmh recorded at Brothers Island (Marlborough Sounds) on the 17th was the highest gust for May for New Zealand.