Living in Wellington means learning more about the weather, and caring more about it, than in any other place I have lived. Wind is the issue. The Roaring Forties are strong westerly winds which occur in the Southern Hemisphere, where there are few land masses to act as windbreaks to slow these winds down. Wellington sits by the Cook Strait, which lies between the North and South Islands. It is quite narrow - about 24 kilometres at its narrowest point, and it acts as a funnel, deflecting these very strong westerly winds. In addition, from the south we get cold fronts that seem to come straight from Antarctica - brrrr - instant winter. And from the north, there are moist and warmer fronts, with a hint of the tropical - actually that is fanciful, they are usually drying and unpleasant. This weekend we had a short sharp shock from the southwest - a lovely sunny morning, but clouds were on their way...
From the rocky shore by Island Bay, looking southwest towards the South Island, a front approaches. The rainclouds are beginning to let loose over Taputeranga, even though the sun is still lighting up the rocks, the coprosmas in the foreground, and the sandy shore of the beach in the distance.