The soaring temperatures which hit Christchurch over the weekend are set to continue this week.

MetServiceduty forecasterPhilippa Murdochsaid a ridge was building over most of the country, bringing clear skies and warm weather to Christchurch.

"It's going to be fine today. Tomorrow and Wednesday will be warm and sunny with some cloudy periods developing tomorrow evening," she said.

"Today we're expecting a high of 19 degrees, but tomorrow a high of 26 and a high of 29 degrees on Wednesday".

However, the weather would take a turn on Thursday with a period of rain."It will cool off a little bit and we are forecasting some showers."

Murdoch was hopeful the wet spell would be over before next weekend."It's a little harder to forecast that far away, but at this stage it is looking like it will clear."

The balmy weekend weather saw thousands at Christchurch beaches.

Met Service forecaster Ian Gall said some parts of the city exceeded 30 degrees on Saturday and yesterday the mercury rose to about 25C.

Winds reached about 65 kilometres per hour on Saturday, strong enough to be noticed but not strong enough to cause damage.

A Taylors Mistake Surf Life Saving spokeswoman said it had been "an awesome weekend". At its busiest, more than 1500 people were on the beach.

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Canterbury cools off on the beaches