I went for a sunday drive yesterday. The southern Manawatu and all the way down to Porrirua is about as dry as the same time last year. The northern Manawatu from Cheltenham across to Pohangina is a bit less dry thanks to the small amount of rain that missed Palmy at the beginning of this month thanks to the Sou’ Westers.

That cold sou-wester gave us rain relief last week. It was good, nicely spread out but brrr. The southerly (SW into Wgtn) caused the oddest thing, a mountain wave of rain coming down into us, in a very steep narrow band; just like a waterfall dropping down, during a partially blue sky. Seeing the weirdest of things now, but that was a bit odd for my liking. I know the atmosphere consists of rivers of air, but why dump it down into us! Need more rain, but just the normal stuff, not massive downpours, sleet or waterfalls.

Christchurch is surprisingly drier than you would think after last weeks rain.  The Council, CERA and the Government should be commended on the job they have done fixing up the infrastructure around the drainage.  The city was well and truly munted after 2011.  Those who have not seen it or understand the complexity of a cities drainage (waste and storm water) would have little understanding of the damage done underneath the streets and to the level of the land.  People, politicians and media are quick to jump on and sensationalise emotional stories, but credit needs to be handed out here to the work that has been done.  If this weather event happened in March 2011, I hate to think of how things would have been.

We are near Warkworth, we have not had the cracking of the ground like we had last year, and some previous summers.

As I said on your other page –  I have declared drought at my place. Two of my paddocks have cracks as bad as the ones in the picture, the rest of my paddocks have lesser cracks – but the paddocks are still covered in them. I have no grass now, and the water tanks are empty. One of my friends in this area has been buying water every two weeks.My stable block is starting to slump where huge cracks have appeared in the walls.

Pukekohe very dry again and water tanks close to empty.