Central Otago's Alexandra was feeling the cold this morning.
© JOHN BISSET/STUFFCentral Otago's Alexandra was feeling the cold this morning.
Summer might be 18 days away, but it is feeling like winter never left in some parts of the country.

Central Otago and Alexandra woke to a cool Tuesday morning, with temperatures dropping down to 0 degrees Celsius. That was in contrast to the warm highs of last week, where some areas hit the 30s.

MetService meteorologist Tahlia Crabtree said it would have felt like they were "snapping back to winter".

Parts of the South Island were below 10°C on Tuesday morning - Queenstown got down to 1.6C, but it felt like -1C, according to the MetService website.

However, the rest of the country was inching closer to summer. Auckland and Wellington temperatures weren't "looking particularly crazy", according to Crabtree, and Christchurch and the colder regions in South Island were expected to warm up as the week progressed.

"Christchurch will be a little warmer tomorrow compared to today, but the rest of us, we're gonna be pretty standard here in Wellington ... nothing out of the ordinary for temperatures, same with Auckland.