Last week, Jeremy's mom and stepdad arrived to the absolute, hands-down, worst weather we have seen since moving here.
It rained. It snowed. It sleeted. It hailed. The city was swallowed in fog.
It rained straight down. It rained sideways. It rained in drops. It rained in sheets.
The wind howled. The ocean roared. The waves crashed. The salt sprayed.
And then it rained some more.
A record-breaking 9.3 inches of rain fell between May 24th and May 31st. Streets flooded, roads were closed, trees fell, hillsides collapsed. In the city of Dunedin, surfers flocked not to the ocean, but to the River Leith, which normally flows quietly through a park downtown, but had become a raging torrent. (Click for photos.)
Back in our living room, we celebrated a cozy fire, pj's, wool blankets, and some good ol' Speights ("Good on ya, Mate").
Saturday night, we had the neighbors over for dinner, conversation, and laughs.
Cookie and Kurt help prepare beef stew
Russell combats the gloomy weather with a shirt
Liz's pavlova ("pav") was well received
And Little Maia sports her new stars-and-stripes jumper,
a gift from her favorite Americans, Jeremy and Marisa
At long last, on Monday, our friend the sun made a tentative reappearance, and the clouds began to move away. We took the opportunity to bring our visitors out on the peninsula before they left.
Bye, Guys. Thanks for coming. You are loads of fun. Come back next year, in the summer.
