Monday, July 18, 2005

July 16 - 17 2005

Well, this is another of those weekends – a promise of rain, lots of rain.

Left Auckland at half six, breakfast in Dargaville, Opo at midday. THEN it started to rain. Not, you understand, anything of biblical proportions. Just good solid honest rain, more than enough to get you wet fairly quickly if you ventured outside. It stopped and started during the afternoon, but by dusk it was quite obvious that the main event was just over the dunes on the northwest side of the harbour.

About this time too, I sat in the conservatory watching the surf out on the bar. There was not a lot of break, only two of the major breaks seemed to be operating and that only intermittent. It was the combination of outgoing tide and strong easterly winds that created the spectacle.

They must have been three metre waves that built up on the outer side of the break. The strength of the easterly was such that it was holding the crest of these combers almost vertical for a second and the blew the whole top of the wave back in a huge arch of spray. The waves were not so much “progressing over the bar” as they normally would but just disintegrating.

After six I went down and caught some fish and chips from the local. Well fish and kumara chips to be precise. Veeeerrry nice.

The post dinner entertainment was a meterological fireworks display over the upper harbour. One of the biggest (though not overly active) thunderstorms I have seen for a while stamped its way over Kohukohu and Rawene way and off south east toward Whangarei. We sat with the lights off until well after nine when the back end of the front came through.

Later the tail of the associated low came through as well and really dumped. The roar of the rain on the roof woke me, and Shirley had been awake for a while.

Sunday started with a leisurely breakfast, pack the car, and away by midday. There was a very small slip coming down on the road at the start of the Waipoua Forest. It was just a small tree and some clay. Otherwise the drive home was a good steady run until Wenderholm where it all stopped. Took roughly half an hour from there to the end of the motorway. The only likely cause of the holdup was a young guy who seemed to think that his surfie wagon was a bridge demolition device. Anyway, despite that we did the trip in just on five hours including a stop for lunch.

Not bad going all things considered.