October 1955:  For the 3rd consecutive month the weather was unusually mild. On the 5th unusual thunderstorm activity in Northland damaged power and telephone lines, and heavy rain flooded thousands of acres of farmland in the Dargaville-Kaikohe area. Early on the 18th heavy rain caused flooding at Hunterville and the main trunk railway was blocked for over 24 hours.

Rainfall: Rainfall was appreciably below normal of most of Hawkes Bay and Wairarapa, also over the South Island apart from eastern and southern coastal districts of Otago and Southland. Greatest departures were in the Lakes district and Marlborough. It was wetter than usual in Northland and also in Hauraki Plains, Bay of Plenty, and western Taranaki. For central Northland it was an exceptionally wet month, with totals ranging from 14” to over 20”. 3/4 of this fell in the first 6 days. 24-hour rainfalls on the 5th ranged from 5” to over 8”.

Temperatures: Temperatures were above normal over the whole country, mainly by 2F. Departures of over 3F were recorded in the Invercargill-Gore-Queenstown area, which had one of the warmest Octobers on record. An unusual feature of the month was that in many areas the first half of the month was warmer than the second, because of a higher frequency of northerly winds.

Sunshine: The Wellington province and eastern districts of the South Island had more sunshine than usual. In the Christchurch-Ashburton area totals were more than 40 hours above average, making it one of the sunniest Octobers on record.  Sunshine was below normal over the northern half of the North Island, by the equivalent of an hour a day in Gisborne, Bay of Plenty and parts of Northland.

[Some totals: Te Hapua 160, Kaitaia 158, Kerikeri 142, Whangarei 142, Auckland 163, Tauranga 178, Taupo 172, Hamilton 151, New Plymouth 171, Masterton 211, Gisborne 164, Napier 208, Paraparaumu 215, Ohakea 202, Palmerston Nth 181, Levin 200, Wellington 214, Wanganui 188, Westport 161, Hokitika 168, Greymouth 155, Haast 162, Nelson 208, Blenheim 228, Grassmere 221, Mt Cook 149, Methven 226, Christchurch 235, Tekapo 207, Timaru 208, Waimate 185, Omarama 190, Dunedin 167, Queenstown 178, Alexandra 194, Invercargill 160, Campbell Is 58].


Sources: NZ Met. Misc. pub. 107 (Climatological table, NZ Gazette) and NZ Met. Misc. pub. 109 (Meteorological Observations) - additional comments by the poster.