I spoke too soon about the weather calming down. Many cities are getting record snowfalls - it was snowing about 30 minutes inland from us, snowfall has caused a stadium roof to collapse on the south island (and the stadium was only ten years old apparently), the winds continue and there was a tornado just 15km down the coast the other night. It ripped through a garage but nobody was hurt. Last night I kept waking up and hearing what must be the strongest winds we've had yet - and of course the tornado was on my mind. This morning we woke up to thunder rattling our windows! But the sun has made some appearances today.
We seem to chance across these extreme weather events in our travels. What luck! This last week or so of weather has been labelled the worst spring storm for a generation. Farms on the south island have been hit especially hard and most have lost about 15% of their lambs due to the cold and snow or illness caused by it. We were watching the news and they touched on this while showing an adorable little lamb and then the next second they cut to this massive heap of lamb carcasses. Dustin got a laugh out of my reaction.
So now we can add this to our other major weather experiences: 1) the coldest summer Melbourne had in the last ten years; 2) some of the wettest weather up the East Coast of Australia; 3) worst bushfires in Victoria; 4) hottest heat wave in Victoria and South Australia... we just love it!
On my way to my job interview yesterday I noticed that the indicators on the car stopped working. So, after the interview I made my way to a mechanic - desperately hoping the the hand signals from home are the same here! I wasn't even sure if I had brake lights either so I'm glad it was pretty close. Turns out the relay had quit so we had to get that replaced and this mechanic is pretty sure our battery is buggered so although it's been ok for the last couple weeks, it died on him while he was trying to work on the lighting issue. So I'm taking it in for a new battery later today - of course the battery is bigger for this vehicle (read: more expensive) but at least it should be the last of our troubles in that department. I think the car just needs us to give it a little love and it will return the feeling.
When I was waiting for the car to be fixed yesterday I walked down to the beach to watch some surfing. There were about 8 guys out and from up on the hill I was thinking that maybe I'd head out once I got the car back - until I realized that every wave that was caught was at least double overhead and that these guys knew what they were doing and I best to keep waiting for calmer, warmer days.
We seem to chance across these extreme weather events in our travels. What luck! This last week or so of weather has been labelled the worst spring storm for a generation. Farms on the south island have been hit especially hard and most have lost about 15% of their lambs due to the cold and snow or illness caused by it. We were watching the news and they touched on this while showing an adorable little lamb and then the next second they cut to this massive heap of lamb carcasses. Dustin got a laugh out of my reaction.
So now we can add this to our other major weather experiences: 1) the coldest summer Melbourne had in the last ten years; 2) some of the wettest weather up the East Coast of Australia; 3) worst bushfires in Victoria; 4) hottest heat wave in Victoria and South Australia... we just love it!
On my way to my job interview yesterday I noticed that the indicators on the car stopped working. So, after the interview I made my way to a mechanic - desperately hoping the the hand signals from home are the same here! I wasn't even sure if I had brake lights either so I'm glad it was pretty close. Turns out the relay had quit so we had to get that replaced and this mechanic is pretty sure our battery is buggered so although it's been ok for the last couple weeks, it died on him while he was trying to work on the lighting issue. So I'm taking it in for a new battery later today - of course the battery is bigger for this vehicle (read: more expensive) but at least it should be the last of our troubles in that department. I think the car just needs us to give it a little love and it will return the feeling.
When I was waiting for the car to be fixed yesterday I walked down to the beach to watch some surfing. There were about 8 guys out and from up on the hill I was thinking that maybe I'd head out once I got the car back - until I realized that every wave that was caught was at least double overhead and that these guys knew what they were doing and I best to keep waiting for calmer, warmer days.
Crazy weather, hope it doesn't get any worse! How did your interview go?
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