Weather in Te Anau in December

Shoulder season. December sits in between. You will get good days and you will lose some. You should expect rain on 21 days of the month, which is more days wet than dry.

December ranks 3 of 12 in Te Anau. Only January scores clearly higher, and the difference is small enough to be settled by price rather than weather.

Rain on 21 of the month's 31 days, 7 of them heavy. At that frequency a wet-weather backup is not a contingency, it is the itinerary — book the indoor things first and treat the clear days as the bonus. Pack for 16.9 °C days and 8.7 °C nights; the spread matters more here than any single number.

What the averages hide

The averages here are honest — no hidden extremes worth planning around. Across the twenty years measured, the hottest December day reached 25.1 °C and the coldest night fell to 2.2 °C, and the wettest single day dropped 56 mm — roughly 28% of the month's rain in one day.

December is statistically steady but not small: the year-to-year variation is modest in relative terms, yet the wettest December on record still delivered 370 mm against 62 mm in the driest. In a month this wet, even a tame spread is a lot of rain in absolute terms — the 197 mm average is a reasonable planning figure, not a promise.

Wind is light at 11 km/h, so the temperature on the page is close to the temperature on your skin, and humidity runs at 84%, high enough to notice on the warm days without dominating them.

How December sits in the year

Temperatures hold steady either side: 14.5 °C in November, 16.9 here, 17.9 in January. Nothing about the timing within the month matters much.

Daylight in December

December is at or near the longest days of Te Anau's year: 15.6 hours of daylight, holding steady all month. Evenings are the real gain — dinner outdoors still happens in full light.

An inland climate

Despite being inland, the year stays fairly even: 14.5 °C between the year's warmest afternoons and coldest nights.

How busy it gets

Peak season. Expect the highest prices of the year and to be booking well ahead. If the dates are flexible, November is the trade worth considering — 11 points weaker on weather, and materially quieter.

Crowd levels are estimated from climate desirability and school-holiday calendars, not from visitor numbers.

December in Te Anau versus nearby

If Te Anau is one option among several, the nearby comparison is worth making. Queenstown is close enough to be a coin toss — within a degree on temperature, 2 days less rain. Invercargill is close enough to be a coin toss — within a degree on temperature, 4 days less rain.

So: December is effectively as good as it gets here — 3 points behind January, which is inside the margin where the weather stops being the deciding factor and price starts being it.

Every month in Te Anau

See all twelve months in Te Anau, or where else to go in December.