After the northerly gales subsided the southerly gales arrived from Antarctica bringing the cold - sometimes they drop a frosting of snow on the Orongorongos, but there was not much this time. There can be glorious quite still periods in between with blue skies and sunshine, before another weather front arrives. Here on the south coast the arrival of the front can often be clearly seen - a dramatic bank of clouds, a change of colour in the sky, a stirring up of the ocean waves. And following the southerly winds there is a southerly swell. I learned the description "wild and woolly" when I was young. I think it describes very well the foaming southerly swell as it crashes onto the rocky shore by Houghton Bay beach on Wellington's south coast.
