Blenheim takes the sunshine crown
11 Jan 2008
It produces some of the world's finest wine, and now the New Zealand town of Blenheim has taken the crown as the country's sunniest centre.
The Marlborough town clinched the coveted title from its nearby rival Nelson which has held top spot for ten years.
Blenheim recorded more than 2560 hours of sun for 2007, closely followed by Nelson, while the southern city of Dunedin recorded the lowest average temperature of 14.2 degrees.
New Zealand in general is sunnier than north Western Europe but less sunny than the Mediterranean and much of the US. Blenheim's sunshine hours are on par with Florence, Italy.
The Marlborough and Tasman areas at the top of the South Island receive more sunshine than the rest of the country because of their sheltered geography, while Tauranga has the most sunshine hours in the North Island.
The only downside to all this sun is the fact that people burn more easily in New Zealand because of the lack of pollution and less ozone to block out the damaging UV rays, and also the earths orbit takes New Zealand closer to the sun during the southern summer.
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