These pictures are up for my record – Wellington may not see such scenes again in my lifetime. We and the rest of the country have been in the grip of a serious cold spell caused by adjacent low pressure and high pressure cells to the south of New Zealand creating a corridor that has channelled bad weather all the way up from Antarctica. A stalemate between these pressure systems is causing the bad weather to linger. Yeah…I know the scenes below are tame compared with what other parts of the world get. Or even with southerly parts of New Zealand. But it is a huge novelty for us. Things look so different with a coating of snow.
Arriving home from Martinborough on Sunday afternoon. No snow in Martinborough (then) and it was snowing, but not settling over the Rimutakas on the way home. Snowed almost all the way to Wellington, but still not settling. It was a different story when we turned ujp the Ngaio Gorge road. A short time later the Rimutaka road was closed and 100 people were trapped up there and had to be rescued.
Looking down our drive
Looking down Cockayne Road. Our driveway is just off-camera at bottom left.
Looking across Cockayne Road from our drive entrance.
The same house, next morning.
Looking across the Ngaio Valley from our house, the next morning. The previous time we saw snow on Crows Nest Hill in the background was 1983. On that occasion I think the hill was the only place that got any snow.
Liz sitting on our deck, feigning cheerfulness.
This video below shows snow outside my office window yesterday. This is almost unheard of in Wellington!
