Snow in Auckland!

[vilakins]

People, it snowed today! There hasn't been snow in Auckland since 1939. There had been hail earlier in the day but suddenly people in the place I was working started shouting there was snow falling and we rushed out onto the roof deck. Some people said it was more hail, but it was real, drifting snow, glittering on our hair and clothes though it melted as soon as it hit the ground. There was visible ground snow in the Bombay hills though!

OK, I lived in Germany for almost three years so I know about real snow and really cold temperatures, but this is news for this city. Of course the more southern snowed-in cities are pointing and laughing like they did when we had an earthquake recently, but the point in both cases is that we hardly ever get either.

I am so glad we have a heat-pump even though it's only managed to bring the house up to about 16-17C.

I should also report that my striped scarf and purple Wolf Bay mitts and possum-wool hat were very much appreciated on the walking part of my commute, especially in the morning gale.

Comments

[corvuscornix]

Aw, I get first-snow excitement just reading about this. :-D And I'm supposed to be used to it...

[vilakins]

I don't think I ever really got used to it in Germany. I always enjoyed it while my friends cursed it as a nuisance. :-)

[gwendraith]

Hi, sorry for just dropping in like this but I was networking and saw your journal. We have a couple of friends in common and I would like a more balanced flist by friending people living or from other countries :) Would you care to be acquainted and exchange accesses and subscriptions and see how we get on? I'm ex lj and live in England.

[vilakins]

Absolutely! I shall do that now.

I see you're a Blake's 7 fan too. :-)

[gwendraith]

Excellent. I have added you too! Love Blake's 7 although it seems a little dated now :) I'm still waiting for the revival!

[vilakins]

I just realised I didn't reply to this. I just wanted to say that I fear a revival. The new audio tapes were awful: Scottish Servalan, American Jenna, Vila sounded like am ageing seedy chain-smoker, no teleport... Plus it will probably be gritty and sweary and modern politics but In Space.

Or they coud create new characters in the same universe - unless they cast Benedict Cumberbatch or Dylan Moran as Avon and Martin Freeman as Vila, Michelle Gomez as Servalan and Stephen Mangan as Tarrant. :-) I could live with that!

[gwendraith]

Not heard the audio tapes so I'll take your word for it. Most revivals aren't as good as the originals so new characters are probably the best way to go. I like your ideas for the cast members :)

[vilakins]

Sorry, they weren't tapes, but CDs. They were also on the radio in short bursts and I listened to them somewhere on line in small files, I think of 10 -15 minutes each. You can probably still find them, maybe on YouTube. They were made by B7E, the people Paul Darrow fell out with.

I love that icon!

[mab_browne]

I was watching vid on the Herald website and there were some bods in a Queen Street building watching it fall outside their windows. Great excitement in the sub-tropical north. :-)

We're still getting snow showers down here but it's not settling. It's cold enough that there's plenty of snow left on the grass and on roofs, etc. Brrrrrr.

[vilakins]

I'd like to have seen more. I've seen two very heavy hail storms in the past which looked like snow, turning the ground white. One was when I was at uni: cue hail-ball fights with umbrellas as shields!

[pebblerocker]

Exciting!! How long did the fall last? I only got to stand in the snow for a minute or two.

[vilakins]

About that! :-P But it was lovely drifting snow that landed on us even if it disappeared as soon as it hit the ground. One person made a tiny snowball from what was on the window sills. :-)

[jhall1.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure whether it's appropriate to offer my congratulations. :)

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

It is for Auckland! The south has a lot more snow and they're more blasé about it down the South Island.

[nautile26.livejournal.com]

Eeeep! Snow is all very well when your home is designed to cope with the cold. Stay warm!

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Our houses certainly aren't! It's up to a balmy 15C in this room which feels very pleasant compared to outside.

[snowgrouse.livejournal.com]

How did the kitties react to the snow? I know Noki always goes O_O when she sees first snow through the window (probably confuses her even more as she's never been an outdoor cat).

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

I doubt they noticed and I was at work (I have work for a couple of weeks). I mean this is all it would have been (http://pebblerocker.livejournal.com/56265.html) (courtesy of pebblerocker and her grey kitten). On the news they showed cats in Christchurch playing in the snow--so cute--and one was just like Sebastian, curling-forward tail and all, so we could imagine that was how he'd be.

It's 11C in this room and I'm wearing some of my striped fingerless gloves. :-P Ok, it's warmer than outside but it's colder than this house has been since we got the heatpump (and despite the thing). I think it's struggling. :-P

[ultrapsychobrat.livejournal.com]

Glad your warmies helped--and that you make them yourself. I was only ever in snow once, but I remember loving it. My mother, who grew up in it, hated it. Of course, it only stayed for a day or so, but they closed school, which we thought was wonderful.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

I loved it when I was in Germany! If it actually snowed properly here, the air would be below freezing and nice and dry and I'd enjoy that. :-)

[sallymn.livejournal.com]

How exciting! We haven't seen any since the 1970s and then it was a bare handful of flakes... but we're not far from the Snowy Mountains (the wind comes straight off the snow some days)

[jomacmouse.livejournal.com]

Ouch. You have just made me so glad it doesn't get cold enough for snow to hang around on Barrington Tops, otherwise entire Hunter Valley would be unbearable for more than just the few days each winter when snow happens or is likely to happen.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

A handful was all we got, but still! :-D

[gair.livejournal.com]

WOW!!!

[astrogirl2.livejournal.com]

I feel weirdly excited for you. :)

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Pity there wasn't more, but they got enough to play in in the hills. And it snowed on the hills by Dargaville up there in the "winterless north"!

Aww, your icon reminds me of Jarod in his first snow. :-)

[astrogirl2.livejournal.com]

Did you go out, Jarod-like, and spread your arms? (I've been known to do that in the rain, after months without any.) :)

[quabazaa.livejournal.com]

CANNOT BELIEVE!!!!! That is exciting, no matter how much snow you saw in Germany, it really is a shock that it's made it to Auckland :)

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

I know! Even if they're laughing at us in the south.

[reapermum.livejournal.com]

I hope you only get exciting, but not inconvenient amounts.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Well, just a few minutes of it here, but there was enough to play in in the Bombay hills just south of town.

[jthijsen.livejournal.com]

This sounds like you got the best of both worlds: you got to watch the snow fall, which is indeed very pretty, but it melted on the ground so you won't get slippery roads.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

True. I have to say I've never driven in snow (and those who tried in other cities had a lot of problems). In Germany it was trams or walking.

[luinielle.livejournal.com]

I hope you were able to enjoy the snow fall, despite the freezing temps. :o)

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

We did! I enjoy coming home to an unpleasantly cold house a lot less though. we don't build for winter, let alone snow. :-P

[vjezkova.livejournal.com]

This is exciting! Fortunately there is not enough of the white stuff to make problems, so make the most of it!!!
It is good that you have proper and warm clothing:-)
The cat have their fur:-)

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

I just wish we had houses built for the cold! Brrrr! I am typing in fingerless gloves.

[vjezkova.livejournal.com]

I am sending warm hugs...I know, fat lot of help it is...:-)

[reapermum.livejournal.com]

Your snow was mentioned on the main BBC TV weather forecast this evening.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Was it? Gosh! We've got three more days of Antarctic blast apparently.

[lizamanynames.livejournal.com]

...

.....

Excuse me while I boggle vaugely at the concept of no snow for longer than the past two generations of my family.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Well we're subtropical here! I didn't even know it had snowed ever until this week.

[lizamanynames.livejournal.com]

Oh I know, intellectually I realize it makes perfect sense, it's just so alien a concept I have trouble getting my head around it, you know?