A good summer isn't necessarily a good thing

We've had a corker of a summer. There's no two ways about it. For once, Welly has basked in day after day of sunshiney glory.

But forget about hosepipe bans, one of the suggestions here has been to shower with friends! The capital is down to about 20 days' supply, unless some rain arrives soon. The whole North Island has officially been declared in drought.

But it's hard to look at this negatively, when we're enjoying the best weather we've had since arriving in NZ. It's hard to see the downside when it looks like this...

Not a nice thing to wake up to

We had a fairly interrupted night's sleep last night as we could hear a helicopter buzzing around. This is very unusual, but we thought it might have been search and rescue trying to find someone. So imagine our surprise this morning when we opened the curtains to see this...

The helicopters that were buzzing us were carrying "monsoon buckets" to help the firefighters douse the flames. The story in the local paper provides more details, and we also sent some photos in under Ian's name. At the time of posting, his was photo 3 (but it may have moved, so scroll through). There's also a video.

Rest assured we are not in danger. The bush is incredibly dry at the moment as we've had a fantastic summer with lots of incredibly hot days, which is unusual for Wellington. While we've appreciated the beautiful weather, this reminds us of the added dangers it brings.

First trip back

Annalie is making her first trip back to the UK since August 2010. It's winter in the UK. Here in NZ it's approaching 20 degrees, sunny and still. Remind us again, why is she leaving? ;-)

Well, there is a damn good reason, but still... ;-)