Local Floods, Water Shortage, and Polar Blast

Its been all go here in our part of the world, starting with very heavy rains causing local flooding.  So much rain caused the local Council to send out a message to residents to stop using water immediately.  The water treatment plants were struggling to effectively treat the mud, silt and debris in the waterways and the reservoirs were at very low levels.  Water tankers have been providing fresh water to residents and many households have an emergency water supply tank which can be used.   

As if that isn’t enough to contend with, we have been waned that a polar blast is sweeping up the country from Antarctica.  All Air New Zealand flights in and out of the country's southernmost airports  been cancelled due to the worsening weather.  The national carrier said the polar blast was causing disruption across much of the South Island with Dunedin, Invercargill and Queenstown flights now cancelled due to the wind and snow.

Further travel disruption is expected with the Interislander ferry cancelling all sailings and likely to be extended into Wednesday. Forecasters say the cold front will sweep northwards up the country during Monday, opening the freezer door to all of New Zealand.  The latest snow alert, which encompasses two-thirds of the country, will see snow start falling in the North Island tomorrow morning.   And just to keep Wellingtonians on their toes,  an "intense" hail storm hammered areas of the capital in the early hours.    People living around Wellington's south coast have been warned to be on alert for massive waves that could reach higher than 6m tomorrow night, and potentially cause local flooding and damage.

It seemed timely that Robin had our generator serviced the other day, so we know it will perform properly in case of any power cuts.  Our late friend Geoff C often used to talk about belonging to “the Red Generator Club”, and wouldn’t have a bar of  those yellow ones, it was a red generator or nothing!

Our red generator al ready for action

With cold weather like we are experiencing, we are pleased we are safely tucked up at home and not camping somewhere in the wilds.  Just the sort of weather to enjoy a bowl of porridge for breakfast today, topped with cream and brown sugar, and home made soup for lunch!

SLG Lunch – keeping it local

During the week we had a Super Leisure Group outing, organised by Calvin.  This was my first “big” trip out of the house for weeks after having my spinal surgery so Calvin kindly arranged for us to meet for lunch not too far away, just south of Levin.  That way, I wouldn’t have to sit in the car too long.  We met at Salt and Pepper Café, which also has a plant nursery, a small gift shop,  and sells locally produced eggs.

Here for lunch

Walking through the shop to the café, we were a little worried to see a sign on the café door stating that the café was fully booked.  Surely Calvin had pre-booked a table for our group?  Of course he had, and there they were, three of our group sitting and waiting, with Yvonne and Ashley arriving shortly after us. The café was certainly full to overflowing, always a good sign at an eatery, I feel.

There was plenty of good choices on the menu and we all ordered different meals.  The food was very tasty indeed, and the only problem we encountered on this chilly day were patrons coming and going out the café door and not closing it behind them.  Come on people, it’s common courtesy, after all. 

All ready to tuck into our meals.

On our way out some looked around the garden centre, Trish purchased some eggs, and we bought some of our favourite keto crackers from the shop. 

 

The garden centre

Then it was all back to Villa 50 for coffee and cake and even more chatting to complete the afternoon before everyone headed back down to the Hutt Valley.  Many thanks to Calvin for organising a nice lunch out – it was so nice to catch up with everyone again.

Hibernating

We seem to have been hibernating the last few weeks.  No caravan trip away to Carterton recently during the three day Queen’s Birthday Weekend, all due to me being in the “rest and recovery mode” after my spinal surgery.  But Robin did take the caravan on a day trip away to check out the batteries, to check on our battery problems.  Battery Guru Frank gave the system a good going over to see what the trouble was.  Seems the batteries are fine, but things could be improved if we purchased a more efficient one.  So the good thing that came out of this consultation is that we wont need to replace our batteries.  Our last few rallies have been off power, in cold and cloudy conditions, so there was not a great deal of charging happening through the solar panels.

I have been loaned a walker from the hospital to help improve my mobility.  Gemma has decided to try it out for size, and jumped up on the seat.  Yes, it fits her quite well, she decided.  Mind you, she is not too keen when it trundles towards her while she is stretched out on the carpet.

The other excitement in our lives recently is receiving our first Covid vaccination.  We went down to the Health Centre joining a steady stream of elderly people, yes, we are in that category now.   No trouble at all, it was done very efficiently, and we hardly felt a thing.  Like all vaccinations, we had to sit and wait a while to make sure there were no side effects, and we were informed we could go home, although I’m sure some sneeked away early.  It was almost like a Menz Shed gathering down there as several of Robin’s buddies had their Covid appointments too.  Our second dose will be in three weeks time.