Originally Posted by
FlyerEC
Well, we were ' toasted ' in Jan / Feb '90 , even more " tanned " than from e.g. Bali. Had a no AC car for part of the time & it was unbearable as the draft was hot

There's definitely a lot of UV in New Zealand--you're much more likely to get burned there (or in Australia) than in tropical latitudes, regardless of the temperature.
And sure, it gets warmer than is comfortable without air conditioning, but even in the "warm" parts of the country never get truly hot. The all time high temperature in Auckland is 90 degrees F (32 C).