Thread: Bugger the rain

Yup, everything below ground is sure getting a good top up.

I’ve got the NIWA weather station database here, and our local records are being smashed.

For the first time in living memory the river at the end of our road has broken its banks at the campsite three times in one month.

Considering it would normally do it once every five or six years that’s quite an achievement.

What is interesting though is that despite the frequency of these flooding rains there is not yet been quite enough to do real damage. We keep waiting for the flood that destroys SH2 in the Karangahake Gorge, like 1981. The river has ripped the bitumen off the one corner a couple of times in the last 15-20 years, but one day it’s going to take that corner out altogether. And then will be pretty well buggered for a good while.

I usually go hard out for 3 weeks with no breaks so I can take 7-10 days off in a block to get work done on the property and to go hunting. I can't alter the dates (magazine deadlines) and pretty much every time I'm writing the weather is beaut, no guesses how the days off have been recently..... Rain, rain and more rain....

Originally Posted by bumblefoot

I usually go hard out for 3 weeks with no breaks so I can take 7-10 days off in a block to get work done on the property and to go hunting. I can't alter the dates (magazine deadlines) and pretty much every time I'm writing the weather is beaut, no guesses how the days off have been recently..... Rain, rain and more rain....

can you not write up when its wet and save what you have written until some fine weather....then send it in and enjoy the sunshine???

Originally Posted by Micky Duck

can you not write up when its wet and save what you have written until some fine weather....then send it in and enjoy the sunshine???

Not when you have set deadline dates to get stuff in by for a monthly mag

Heaviest July rainfall on record for Canterbury - 1/3rd of annual rainfall (30-35") in less than a month. Will pop out in truck this afternoon to see little local Selwyn river. Currently at almost 150 cumecs/tonnes per second - huge!

Don't think I'll go for drive up the riverbed today. Would have to take passport in the truck - likely end up in Argentina...

Effects of the rain.. Wandered out to look at Selwyn river near Coe's Ford just south of christchurch this afternoon. A wee river usually dry for most of the year - but not today. Running at 156 cumecs/tonnes per second flow rate. Photo is of the roadway straight across to other side - decided not to bother crossing!. 110m wide here and 200m+ a little further up: Now this is a tiny southern river. The Waimakariri, Hurunui, Waiau etc can reach 10-15x this flow, and the Rakaia a few years was up over 4000 cumecs or 27x this volume..

Note - a 4wd driver was chopper rescued from his truck in the north Canterbury Okuku river a week or so ago after trying to cross it at about same volume... Crazy!

Now thats a fair bit of water

The new council built wharf at the Paeroa Maritime Museum.

Hope its still there tomorrow….

Had a gutsfull of it all ready. You can mark it on a calender, the day the first cow drops a calf it will rain 40 bastards for the next six weeks. Been down here four years now and the locals still try telling me "it's not like this every year"
Yea yea, I've been hearing that old chestnut for four years now....

down here 20 years ago we often saw the road repair guys with a machine like a ditchwitch (giant chainsaw with 4" teeth) chewing up stuffed bits of road,then chucking in bags of cement to try and firm it all up again.....definitely more effort than the current chuck some icing on it. road between mayfield and geraldine is a disgrace.

Originally Posted by Micky Duck

down here 20 years ago we often saw the road repair guys with a machine like a ditchwitch (giant chainsaw with 4" teeth) chewing up stuffed bits of road,then chucking in bags of cement to try and firm it all up again.....definitely more effort than the current chuck some icing on it. road between mayfield and geraldine is a disgrace.

They spent some big coin on that road,i wouldv done 20 return trips on that road last summer.Yours eye gota be watching 200yds ahead for pot holes.I hate to run a wee mini on that road,youd kill it or any other small car.Some of the pot holes are axle breakers.

Originally Posted by Trout

I hate to run a wee mini on that road,youd kill it or any other small car.Some of the pot holes are axle breakers.

As a wee mini owner the state of the potholes makes for exciting driving. It's like the 1965 Monte Carlo ralle flash backs.

Originally Posted by stumpys

As a wee mini owner the state of the potholes makes for exciting driving. It's like the 1965 Monte Carlo ralle flash backs.

Corker! Is that yours? I had a 1275GT in the 80s that I sold to fund a trip to Aus. Man I miss that car.

Another fat belt of rain this morning, heavy, persistent, unwelcome. Our cattle are beginning to look mighty cheesed off.

Originally Posted by Flyblown

Corker! Is that yours? I had a 1275GT in the 80s that I sold to fund a trip to Aus. Man I miss that car.

Another fat belt of rain this morning, heavy, persistent, unwelcome. Our cattle are beginning to look mighty cheesed off.

Yes. 1275gt bored out to 1330. I dodge potholes faster now.

MD that leg from Geraldine to Mayfield ain't a road,it's a 20km long cow cookies race.Agree it's a friggin disgrace