The weather is cooling across the Bay of Plenty and New Zealand as autumn starts to take hold.

Weather over Aotearoa will remain settled over the next couple of days until a wet weather system approaches in mid-week.

MetService is forecasting a cool, wet change to cut in on a mild autumn week.

As the country settles into the new season, the week gets off to a benign, albeit cooler, start with sprinklings of showers in the west and mostly bright skies in the east.

A low from the Tasman Sea rolls in from Wednesday causing a change, starting in the South Island.

'The front associated with the low brings rain to the western and southern South Island as it tracks northwards, even reaching as far inland as Central Otago,” explains MetService meteorologist Mmathapelo Makgabutlane.

The rain, however, is not the whole story. The front ushers in a cool southwest change that dips temperatures back down to the mid to upper teens for the South Island.

'As changeable as it is, autumn is ‘pre-winter' after all, and we can expect things to continue to gradually get cooler over the coming months,” says Mmathapelo.

As for the North Island, the affects will be felt later on Wednesday.

'By the end of Thursday most of the North Island will have received at least some rain or showers,” says Mmathapelo.

The North Island also sees cooler conditions on Thursday, although not as much as its southern counterpart, and the rest of the week remains nippy over the country as temperatures are slow to recover.