Wierd wonderful WHACKY winter weather!

The calm before the storm .... amazing light and sinister clouds

Weird wonderfully WHACKY winter weather makes me smile

 .... INSANELY!

It’s been the first SERIOUSLY chilly day in NZ ... for THIS winter that is.  It’s one of those mornings when only the crazed and insane venture out

 .... or those with mad-as-a-hatter hounds.

My fingers give new meaning to the words ‘block of ice’.  

They are frozen to the bone!

We couldn’t possibly NOT walk though.  The BEASTS that take over the beach would drive us demented were they NOT to have their ‘FROLIC’ in the waves.

The moon, very visible in our early morning sky!

The rain was heavy BEFORE we even headed out the door this morning but it eased off as the hound and I did our view-site run.  Ominous black clouds were everywhere as we raced the raindrops back down to the beach.  We get heavy rainstorms here but this one was different.  

Thunder .... Lightning .... Hail .... AND rain.  

Yes.  The hound and I got caught in it

 .... as did Carol and Sam and the oldest lemming and the extra.  

Lightning dances in the sky were frequent occurrences when we lived in Kwa Zulu-Natal.  I can remember many a storm where we’d switch off the lights in the house so as to have a better view of the spectacular show Mother Nature was putting on in the night skies.  

You had to see it to understand how truly magnificent it was.

Auckland doesn’t quite make the grade when it comes to lightning displays.  They do happen but nowhere near as frequently and definitely NOT with the same magnificence.

The clouds don’t often roar at us either .... especially not THAT loudly.

Panda, the only hound on the beach with us yesterday.

It sent Pete scurrying for cover just as he’d come across the road for a morning chit-chat.  The hounds were surprisingly undeterred by the loud rumbling thunder.  They were on the beach  They had their rugby balls. What was everyone’s problem?

My hound looked at me in astonishment as I yelled for her to come.  She stood on the sand ball in mouth pretending she hadn’t heard me.  I could see the thoughts going through her head

 .... are you mental .... we’ve only just got here!

She couldn’t see what I could.

The storm front was moving rapidly towards our bay, rain and hail bouncing

of the surface of the waves.  It was like something out of a horror movie

 .... a shapeless almost invisible force bearing down on us at speed.

We sought refuge on the steps of Maheke Building sheltered by the CLOSED doors that Carol and I always bitch about.  Just for today we were glad they were closed.  As the rain and hail poured down on the INSIDE of the doors, we were snug and dry on the OUTSIDE.  There’s no roof over the public space of Maheke Building  you see, so when it rains and the doors are OPEN, there’s no protection. 

Yes ... quite bizarre, but just for today we LOVED those closed doors!

I found out later that the lightning bolt that precipitated that huge rumble of thunder had split in half one of the Norfolk Pine Trees in Mission Bay!  Shards of wood had flown everywhere. 

Hmmmm ..... I have strange friends.  Carol wanted to know why the lightning bolt couldn’t have taken out a tree on our beach.  The hounds would have been in seventh heaven .... not just raindrops falling from the sky, but logs too!!