Amateur Meteorology
After hours spent pouring over guidebooks, brochures, and maps, we finally put together a plan that would fit our schedule for the South Island and enable us to see most of what we wanted. With the plan in hand, we drove the campervan off the ferry at Picton and stopped by the information center to check the weather forecast.
Seeing a large front moving in, we had to ask ourselves “Is it better to hike in the rain or kayak in the rain?” Instead, we threw out the plan and went wine tasting in the rain. This has been our backup activity for bad weather and the good news is that we’ve really been enjoying some excellent wines. The bad news is that we’ve run out of wine regions in NZ. Malborough was very nice, so maybe we can come back if necessary.
Unlike SoCal where you can predict partly sunny and 70 deg to be right 90% of the time, the weather here is very complicated and constantly changing. The winds blow across the ocean until the bump into the mountains on the west coast creating all sorts of micro climates and storm systems. Everyone you ask seems to have an opinion about what will happen tomorrow and the TV weather even shows the isobar maps so you can draw your own conclusions and plan accordingly.
We actually did get a few nice days and managed to get in that hiking and kayaking in Abel Tasman National Park. The temperature was perfect and the skies blue, but I keep hearing that conditions are “changing.” Not sure what that means, but we’ll find out in the morning.
halftime
March 2nd, 2009 at 4:49 am
the NZ met service website forecasts were pretty accurate when I was there.
I was on the S Isle for over 3 weeks and it rained for at least 2 of them. Hope you get some sunshine, though somehow some parts are still amazing in wet weather.
March 4th, 2009 at 9:43 am
I’m certainly not a wine expert but I wonder how all the good Sauvignon Blanc grapes grow with so much rain.