Saturday, July 5, 2008

Happy 4th of July... It's snowing.

While everyone is enjoying the summer sun we thought we would break your revelry of northern hemisphere chauvinism (I read that recently in a book) with some greetings from our wintry wonderland.

Of course, really snow here in Christchurch isn't quite the same. Being on the coast means even at 45 degrees south latitude it is still somewhat temperate. For instance when I said it was snowing, I should point out that none of the snow stuck to the ground because both before and after the snow it rained. It rained a lot. And there were some great 130 km/h wind gusts to keep the rain falling at a 45 degree angle. (I think most of the snow was falling up earlier). Of course a few hundred kilometers away there are glaciers and mountains where the snow never melts.

So tomorrow when you walk outside and bask in the sun's glow for 16 hours of the day please spare a thought for those of us on the other end of the world who just finished celebrating the WINTER solstice.

Most of these pictures have nothing to do with winter, but we were fairly cold in all of them so, here you go.

Mekayla and Caleb under a water fall in Milford Sound.

Me walking on clouds on the Kepler track:
Our hike on Franz Joseph Glacier:

2 comments:

The Massey Family said...

That looks so amazing! Although, I am definitely not jealous of the snow...I am so happy it is finally warm here in Boston. I think Matt is really jealous of all the fun you guys are having in NZ!! (he reminded me to check you blog cause he liked the new pics.)

Anonymous said...

Hmmm... winter solstice ... I am tempted to feel bad for you, but I must get back to trying to wrestle Jeff into looking at an arbiter gate sim for me. Yep, you've got it rough over there! :)

It looks like you're having a great time - thanks for letting us live vicariously through you guys. Keep up the good work!