It started with a ferocious northerly, beginning to fade in the morning after a very stormy night. As the clouds began to break, rays of light shone through in "god beams" over Island Bay.
Then the clouds and mist cleared quite quickly, and the sky became a bright forget-me-not blue. Looking towards the South Island a rainbow made a brief appearance. A really lovely day - for a few hours.
Then...
ominous clouds from the south, heavy and dark, with raggedy rain-bearing edges.
The wind picked up, the clouds advanced quickly and kept shifting and changing, creating an almost spout-like formation.
It was as if the spout-like formation was extruding a rainbow to snare the Interislander ferry passing by.
The ferries are used to dealing with the stormy weather of the Cook Strait between the North and South Islands. And spring weather in Wellington is indeed very dynamic.
Sure enough - there was more to come - a darkness appearing to subdue the bright mist and the rainbow.
The light faded as the sun began to set, a pinkness apparent in distant low cloud beyond Baring Head. The rainbow reasserted itself - the rain had broken although the clouds still had a threatening aura.
The colours intensified the way they do when the sun is very low. And then the light show faded away.
The winds were settling. Knowing Wellington weather we anticipated a lovely clear day after the storm. And it was.