Sub zero temperatures for Phoebe's family

We had our coldest morning this winter yesterday.... it was a hard frost, and we had all the heaters in the house going to make sure that Phoebe's family were warm while they stayed with us... especially now they are used to the warmer Auckland temperatures...

This picture was in our papers this morning!

Christchurch's coldest morning this winter was lit up by a sunrise of competing layers of haze, smoke and steam yesterday. As surface temperatures fell to below minus 4 degrees Celsius in many parts of the city, the cold air played tricks even on the air several hundred metres up. In the photograph, a gentle westerly drift draining off the Southern Alps is blowing plumes of smoke and steam from left to right, where they are largely trapped under an inversion layer, above which the air temperature rises.

 

Hard frost yesterday!

It was lovely to see the girls again.  Thanks to the cheap flights available they managed to do almost a week in Christchurch visiting everyone and spending their last two nights here, camping in style on the range of portable, blow up and pull out beds.

 

  

Phoebe liked her new pushchair.... she will be pushing it along in no time!!!

  

It was such a lovely day once the frost had cleared yesterday that we took the girls out to the pier in New Brighton...

 See more pics of the pier here

 After a brisk walk we feasted on waffles and pancakes in the local mall. Delicious they were too!

When we walked the dogs the day before we had seen some out of season cygnets on the lake in front of our house... sadly, one of the five has a deformed wing and leg and yesterday, it needed rescuing from the mud ... I had a look and it seemed to be eating fine, and being cared for by the parents, so we made sure it got back into the water and will keep an eye on it. It is hard to know whether to take it in to be put to sleep now - it is swimming fine with one leg! Just hoping it is not a target for dogs.

Apart from that I have had a lovely week off work and feel much better. Even managed Harry Potter 6 this morning! It was great....