Snow in New Zealand

[spudfan]

With the recent snowfall in New Zealand I trust that the Land Rover fraternity will be out enjoying themselves. All of that sun and dust makes you forget how good they are in snow. Watching out for the idiots when it freezes is another matter.
We got overtaken in the Puma on a frozen road by three sledges heading down the incline. However, unlike the Puma, the sledges were unable to negeotiate the bend in the road at the bottom of the slight hill.White hawthorn hedge and holly bushes look really nice and make excellent, if prickly, sledge stoppers.Did the decent thing and hauled out the sledges, which do not have a chassis - unlike the Puma.
All very Christmassy. The wind in your hair, the swish of the runners on the frozen snow, the splintering sound as your sledge hits the prickly bushes, the not very Christmassy language from the airborne sledgers. Yep enjoy.:)

[windsock]

Yep, just got off the phone to a few friends up in the hills north of us. Just checking they are not snowed in and needing food. They're all fine so no need to drive up there at all (still may do :D). Several inches of snow up in the hill country north of us. Not unheard of but certainly not a common occurance up there nor does it usually involve multiple days of snow. We have had snow settle/accumulate down to 100masl in the Manawatu overnight. I live at 87masl and we are in the leeside of the hills from the south but we still got a few inches of snow over the last few days so far. It melts off in a few hours. We're expecting another few flurries of the stuff later on this afternoon. Just had a look at the rain gauge. Shows 18mm in 24hrs and is frozen solid.

Icy underfoot this morning with the sun out and clear skies. Looking good. Black ice is going to be a national problem in a day or two.

This was to all intents and purposes a perfect snow storm. Massive high pressure system stretching from the tropics to 80 degrees lat to the west. A series of low pressure systems to the east of sub-tropical origin heading south and a straight stretch of super chilled air heading over us. Many roads closed. It is being touted by the met office as a one in 50 year event. Others are saying once in a generation. Either way you look at it out there it doesn't happen this wide spread very often at all.

Snow causes chaos across New Zealand (http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/5450195/Snow-causes-chaos-across-New-Zealand)

The snow will go on - everywhere (http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10745421)