It's A Mess

We are getting some good 14 or 15 kms walks in, here in Hokitika on the New Zealand South Island West coast.

Many people think NZ is just off the coast of Australia, and as we gaze out to sea here, Australia is the next stop. But it is roughly the same distance as Manchester to North Africa. Not many in Manchester think they are just off the coast of Tunisia, do they?

And what mayhem is going on over there, weather-wise? Not to mention that on the other side of this island, Christchurch is still rocking with the earthquakes which started on September 4th last year - about 4,000 of them so far. NZ is a land of many earthquakes but until that date, Christchurch thought it was immune. The north of NZ has just had a weekend of flooding, caused by torrential rains and "king tides". The northern hemisphere seems to have been buried under snow for much of the past few months. What is going on?