This is a one-page “Mini Blog” where you’ll find short stories related to current events in New Zealand that may be of interest to tourists – includes ramblings.
This one-page Mini Blog is updated frequently – or that’s the intention anyway – with information that you as a tourist who is considering or planning to come to New Zealand may find interesting.
This page may also include an occasional rambling of mine, since there isn’t really a blog on New Zealand Travel Insider and I sometimes feel like writing about things that generally wouldn’t fit in or fill an article.
Note that the information presented here may be incomplete or lacking depth of research at times, since the purpose of this one-page Mini Blog is to casually share information with you and serve as your eyes in New Zealand.
Snow is still hanging around on the South Island.
While huge amounts of snow have stopped falling on the South Island, it is still very cold, therefore preventing the snow to melt.
The South Island and especially Mackenzie Country where Mount Cook and Lake Pukaki, and Lake Tekapo are located, looks like a huge freezer experiencing extreme temperatures down to -20 degrees Celsius!
Whole of New Zealand is experiencing chilling temperatures right now.
Major snow event on the South Island.
A snow storm has blanketed the lower half of the South Island with snow. This is good news for the ski fields that have already opened.
It looks like this snow storm will not last long, but let’s hope that this is a sign for what’s to come for the rest of winter in New Zealand.
Flooding on South Island roads.
It’s not a good time to be on the roads right now, because many South Island roads have been flooded and a few closed due to a large amount of rain that has fallen in the last 48 hours.
The problem is centred around Dunedin, but also more inland between Cromwell and Lindis Crossing and more down South on State Highway 8 around Roxburgh (as reported by the NZTA).
The temperatures are not particularly very low, although we have already had our first cold snap, so the rain is not falling as snow. However, you can expect ice on roads at higher elevations such as at Lindis Pass.
Second big dumping of snow before the 2015 winter season.
Last night the bottom half of the South Island experienced a large amount of snowfall. The snow then headed North and fell in Taupo and Hawke’s Bay on the North Island of New Zealand, which is very surprising.
When highways get closed due to snow and chains are essential afterwards, you know that a lot of snow has fallen.
In Central Otago, a key route between Cromwell and Queenstown got closed for a while before it was reopened to traffic (reported by the NZTA).
There are just a couple of days left before winter officially starts. Hopefully this is a good sign of things to come and that snow conditions will be good for skiing this year.
New Zealand ski field opening dates for 2015.
It’s just May, but a couple of New Zealand ski fields have already updated their websites to display their opening dates.
I’ve gone ahead and looked up those 2015 ski field opening dates for you, and updated the When do New Zealand ski fields open? page.
I’ll continue to update this page as more ski field 2015 opening dates become available and if I remember. Otherwise, you can just visit the New Zealand ski fields websites to see whether they have already announced their opening dates.
No strong earthquakes after the last big one.
After the strong earthquake (magnitude 6.2) that took place on 24 April 2015 near Kaikoura on the South Island of New Zealand and which was felt on the North Island of New Zealand, it looks like the plates have settled down a bit on this side of the world.
Unfortunately, there seems to be a lot of Earth activity going on lately with volcanoes blowing their tops and other large earthquakes taking place elsewhere in the world.
Having experienced quite a few earthquakes and aftershocks myself, I know how nerve-racking they can be. So my thoughts and prayers go out to the people of Nepal.
Strong earthquake felt in Wellington.
Around 10:42 a.m. on 23 April 2015, an earthquake with a magnitude of 5.1 took place at a depth of 24 km about 15 km East of Seddon.
For those of you who don’t know where Seddon is located: Seddon is a small town at the top of the South Island of New Zealand in the Marlborough region, just South of Blenheim.
Because Seddon is not that far from Wellington, which is located at the bottom of the North Island, the earthquake was felt in Wellington. I know, because I live in Wellington.
The earthquake did not last long enough for me to take cover under the table, but it was strong enough for me to wonder whether another one was on its way…
Wellington train services were disrupted. There were no casualties or damage reported.
First snowfall in 2015.
On 13 April 2015, the South Island of New Zealand got its first big dumping of snow. The snowfall lasted for about 2 days.
The main regions affected were Southland, Central Otago, and Dunedin. The snow reached as far North as Christchurch.
While it is unusual for a lot of snow to fall in April and actually reach the ground, the weather has been weird the entire year. Summer lasted well into March. So much so that I thought it was never going to end.
And then all of a sudden, things got cold and a lot of snow fell to a point where I thought that we were going to skip autumn this year.
I think there is definitely something wrong with Mother Nature or somebody forgot to tune the clocks right. In any case, I welcomed the cold weather, because I was getting a bit tired of the heat.
Hopefully this is a nice prelude to what we can expect for winter. By the way, it did not take long for the snow to melt away.
