Here in the far north of the country, our winters are generally not as severe as they experience in rest of the country, but we do get plenty of cold and rain. During many of our winters we can see clusters of Monarch butterflies enjoying the winter sun. Our Monarchs do not migrate to anywhere, they just hang around their 'patch', in clusters, to wait the winter out.
Having said that, we've not seen a lot of Monarchs out and about this winter. That could be for several reasons - 1) there aren't that many around because their numbers were so devastated by wasps during summer, or 2) we haven't been out and about enough to see them.
This male Monarch was happily flicking around the fruit trees and flowers, in the garden of historic Kemp House, in Kerikeri. Although there were no rips to it's wings, they were showing signs of wear. It was a joy to see this beauty of orange, showing in flight against the late afternoon sun in July.