After the tornado - checking the damage

A frosty morning always brings with it the promise of a nice calm day.  We were invited to share a Birthday Lunch with old friends up on the Kapiti Coast.  But first things first – Robin’s 4WD was badly in need of more fuel so our  first stop was the petrol station.  Glug, glug, glug went the diesel into the tank, and after paying a king’s ransom the car was full and we were ready to start our trip.

  It cost how much?

We drove around the Paremata side of the Pauatahanui Inlet and on such a calm day the reflections were well worth stopping for.  The tide was out in the estuary, and ducks were paddling around the edges. 

Reflections

Another view

And yet another

The birthday lunch was at “The Winemaker’s Daughter”, Otaki, and we dined in the very pretty sun dappled gazebo with bougainvillea climbing all over the rafters.  We all took advantage of the $10 lunch specials, and very tasty they were too.  At that very reasonable price, we just had to indulge in a dessert to finish our meal.  The husbands were reminded not to expect a cooked evening meal, since we were all having such a big lunch.

Birthday girl Shirley and husband Lewis

After a couple of hours eating, chatting, sipping wine, and even more chatting we all went our separate ways and headed home.  It had been mentioned over lunch that there was still quite a bit of damage from the recent tornado (two weeks ago while we were staying at Levin) to see so we decided to drive down to the beach and see for ourselves.  The tornado had come ashore at Waikanae beach and travelled up to the shopping area and crossed State Highway One, tossing cars around and  causing a whole lot of damage.  The swathe of destruction was very clear to see in a stand of pine trees not far from the beach and we noticed workmen with chainsaws hard at work clearing up some of the fallen trees.

Just around the corner the damage was even more severe, with the tops of pine trees broken right off and standing starkly on the top of the hill.

Across the road on the beach side the damage was all very similar, trees lying damaged and with the area roped off.

The power of Mother Nature when she wants to flex her muscles.