Fark the friggin White shite !

[T.W.R]

Well after being caught in the middle of the dump of Snow on Monday ( adequately named a weather bomb by the metrological service).
Lost power early hours of Monday morning, which meant no water from the settelment well, phones went down later that evening as well. Power went out somewhere around 3am Monday & came on 4.45pm today.

We Had 14 inches (350mm) of snow here, its ripped the shit out of the trees around the property (lost most of the cherry trees, & the fruit trees are looking pretty knackered) going to have plenty of fire-wood though from the Marcrocarpas, Blue gums, & willows. spent the monday clearing the driveway of downed trees just to able to get the 4x4 out

Have to laugh a bit at Auckland moaning about loosing power for half a day, try over 3.5 days without power or water and bloody snow everywhere. and there's plenty of places still without any of the basics tonight (and its looking like upto 2wks for some).

luckly had wood for the log burner to keep warm, though most of the wood is soaked now & still hidden under a blanket of white shit. Cooking has been done on camp cookers, as with hot water for coffees etc.

Could have held a Mid Canterbury Brass Monkey over the last couple of days Though on Tuesday was impressed to see a Biker heading north fully geared up on tour ( Damn keen man & a Guzzi rider to boot )

[Scorpygirl]

Well done!!! I would take my hat off to you all - only my ears would be cold without it!!! Cool photos too (OOPS no pun intended)

I hope it thaws soon for you.

Take care.

[bladez]

bloody bugger that fell bad 4 the others still without power

[onearmedbandit]

Was wondering how you and the others down there were doing! Good to see all is okay, if not completely white.

[u4ea]

absolutly amazing...............good to hear youve survived.......so far.......

[yungatart]

Cheers to you and all those others doing it the hard way!! While you were freezing your butt off, we had power, sunshine and 20 glorious degrees.Those in the South without power were in our thoughts - bugger the Dorklanders - they need to harden up

[Matt Bleck]

Sounds like there's more to come to, hows ya roof holding up with all that white shite on it?

[Goblin]

Good to have you back

My mum & I had a giggle about the news coverage of the events of the week. Lots about Dorkland's power out & their traffic catastrophy.... then shorter items about the white-out. I feel for all who are doing it tough down there without moaning.

Wicked pics!

[Flatcap]

Dunno whether you guys have seen this, but looks impressive

[T.W.R]

Ha it's been an entertaining few days, playing lumberjack clearing broken trees etc, been getting a bit sick of camp cooking though , the clear nights have been interesting with the full moon, it's been so bright there hasn't been any need for lights, but there's only so much you can do by candlelight & only so much radio that can be listened too.

Since it snowed the weather hasn't been too bad, but it's actually been warmer at night than during the day (well it's felt like it anyhow, supposed 0 to -3 temp isn't overly hot). Still got a good 10 inches on the ground in most places

The melt is the worst thing though, everythings soaked. The house roof is doing OK but the car garage has a nice bow in it, and most of the guttering is looking sad (once the thaw really sets in I'd say the guttering might get ripped off).

Even though SH1 is only 200m away the township is pretty much 4x4 only, and on Monday & Tuesday it was myself and a neighbour that were the only vehicles mobile (My Landcruiser & his Safari). Cars are still a risky option at the moment . All the streets have 3ft high snow islands down the middle from when the grader came through.

A farmer just out of Chertsey had his Hilux crushed by a powerpole only seconds after he got out to check sheep. Some places towards the sea & up towards Methven are still basically isolated still and only have decent 4x4s & tractors as transport.
The power supply has been reconnected to the main areas just to get water supply back to households, most of the water is pumped from a community well (only has a 3hr backup generator) and when the power went down so did the phones within 7hrs along with the local repeater stations for cellphone coverage.

Main power supply is looking like being anywhere upto 2wks for outlaying areas, and some of the places up country & further south are still completely cut-off. There's an unknown number of powerpoles down in the area, but it's common belief to be in excess of 700 poles over something like 3000km of lines around the Ashburton area alone.

[Scorpygirl]

Glad you have power back then TWR and are able to keep us in touch with the real world!!! I am a Dorklander but was I worried ... no...I was too sick to care really and the gas heater and a nice blanket kept me warm all day!!

[SARGE]

i actually miss the huge snowfalls.. almost jumped a flight down there to play in the drifts..

[Goblin]

Dunno whether you guys have seen this, but looks impressive

Wow! That IS impressive!

Can only imagine the thaw...everything turning to sludge. Will be a massive mission getting everything back into order again. That's a whole lotta power poles...no shortage of work for transfeild eh.

[Jantar]

Dunno whether you guys have seen this, but looks impressive

That photo is an IR image that has been colour enhanced. It shows many areas as being snowed in when they haven't had any snow at all. Central Otago and Northern Southland are completely clear, and I believe Wanaka and Queenstown are also clear of snow on the ground.

Mid and South Canterbury are particularly hard hit and are likely to have snow on the ground for some time.

I have still been riding my bike all week, and as usual rode to work today. I wouldn't be doing that if there was as much snow around as that photo depicts.

TWR, I hope all comes right for you soon.

[oldrider]

Hi TWR, looks like you have got a good dose of snow at your place.
We have not got as much as that satellite pic suggests.
Our village came out quite lucky, only about 400mm in the town but increasing as it rises on the hills and out to the towns all round us.
The weather god must ride a Honda.
I shovelled all the snow away from our house while it was soft and dumped it somewhere else to thaw.
Hard work but that messy shit loses it's charm after a few days.
My olive trees got a hiding but have come out better than the last fall.
There is supposed to be another lot coming through tonight, I have put a jack and strut under my garage roof to support it, just in case.
Hope you get your services back soon and this new threat leaves you alone. Cheers John.