South Canterbury’s Tekapo looks set to be crowned New Zealand’s sunniest place for the first time since records began.

Preliminary figures, released by a scientist at Blenheim’s Plant and Food Research centre, show Tekapo basked in a whopping 2653.2 hours of sunshine last year – 18 hours more than likely silver medallist Richmond in the top of the south.

In fact, Agnew’s data, which had never got it wrong in 20 years, showed South Island towns were set to take out the top five placings in the 2023 sunshine count.

After Tekapo and Richmond (2635.1 hours), it was Appleby in third (2529.6 hours), Cromwell in fourth (2531.8 hours) and Blenheim in fifth (2492). New Plymouth in Taranaki, which has held the crown for the past two years, was set to be the North Island’s best showing, coming in sixth with 2449.5 hours.

The National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (Niwa) awards the title to New Zealand’s sunniest spot each year, but said it wouldn’t be releasing the official standings until next week.

However, Agnew, who has been monitoring Blenheim’s weather for more than 30 years, said these “preliminary” results were unlikely to change before then as the measurements were taken from Niwa’s own CliFlo database.

Agnew said he had released the figures early every year since 2003, and had never got it wrong.

“I’d be surprised if those places changed,” Agnew said.

“The figure for Tekapo should remain the same. Richmond’s total has one day missing in December, so their total might go up slightly, but it’s certainly not going to jump ahead of Tekapo.”

Agnew, whose research is used by viticulturists, horticulturists, agriculturists and tourism operators, said Tekapo, whose previous best standing was second place in 2007, had a very sunny December to “leapfrog” Richmond and take out the title.

At the end of November, Richmond was leading the race by 67.1 hours. But Tekapo, in the Mackenzie District of South Canterbury, had 327.8 hours of sunshine in December compared to Richmond’s 242.4 hours.

Agnew said Richmond, with its one day of missing data, might get another 10 to 12 hours for December.

Anne Munro, the Mackenzie District mayor, said she wasn’t surprised Tekapo had topped the 2023 sunshine charts, as it was already being recognised for its dark, clear skies for stargazing at night.

“Regardless of whether it’s crowned the sunniest town, it is a town with the sunniest dispositions, a special town nestled into a wonderful landscape,” she said.

“However, with long stretches of sunshine comes dryness and right now we should be mindful of water usage and fire risk”.

Elsewhere, Marlborough’s mayor, Nadine Taylor, said she wasn’t too fussed that Blenheim hadn’t worn the crown since 2015, and, in fact, didn’t pay much heed to the sunshine title race.

“I’ve actually always thought that the sunshine awards were fairly silly and somewhat irrelevant to be honest,” she said.

“For me, Wairau’s status as being a place of sunshine goes right back to our earliest inhabitants, the Māori who said ‘Kei puta te Wairau’ – the sun will always shine on the Wairau – and so it does.

“Because that’s why we produce these wonderful wines, that’s why we have the stunning summers that we do because, over time, the sun always shines on the Wairau, and I’ve often thought that reducing it down to just one year was pointless.”