Poor Christchurch - still trying to recover from the destruction of the massive earthquake 3 years ago, yesterday it was battered by a massive storm that has left many suburbs flooded and thousands of people without power. http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/your-weather/9790499/One-in-100-year-flood-swamps-Christchurch
We were there! We'd found a sheltered (we thought!) commercial campsite on the coastal side of the city for Tuesday night and rigged the tent, cooked supper and then checked the weather forecast on the web. What had been forecast the day before as 'strong winds' had, to our dismay, suddenly become "up to 140 kph gusts at the start of Wednesday" and we had a fairly sleepless night as we were pelted by huge rain squalls and sudden wind gusts - being on top of a car suddenly felt quite an exposed place to be! We got up at 6.00am and packed away the tent as quickly as we could as the weather suddenly deteriorated even further; after a quick breakfast we drove west, over the dramatic Arthur's Pass, across to the west coast where the sun was shining and the wind light. What a contrast and, having since read the news updates, we're very relieved that we escaped the chaos when we did.
Over here in Greytown, it's calm and sunny.
Hmmmmmmmmm - These one in a hundred year storms are becoming quite tiresome and rather frequent the world over. Pleased to read you escaped unharmed.
ReplyDeleteEnjoyed the helicoptor flight (last night, at home, I hasten to add!)
Geoff