Businesses in the North Island are counting the cost of the cloudy wet summer, as holidaymakers stay inside to avoid the rain.
A record cloudy December meant that theme park Rainbows End had 11,000 fewer people through the gates compared with the previous December.
Manager Chris Deere said the forecast loss for the season is $250,000.
"I think people make a decision on what they're going to do on a day, and if it's wet and miserable outside then Rainbows End isn't going to be their first choice," said Deere.
Andrew Sommers and his family run a charter boat company around the Hauraki Gulf and said December was one of the worst he had ever seen.
"The entire season is pretty much governed by the weather, so when the forecast came out we'd start getting phonecalls with people cancelling or postponing," said Sommer.
"Our numbers pretty much halved to what they would have been over that time."
However, business owners will be relieved to know that the forecast for the remainder of summer is on the brighter side and a normal sunny March is expected.
