Imagery

Weather confusion
The weather today was supposed to suck. As can be seen below, in Kelson at least, the weather clearly did not suck. There was a fairly cold wind in operation though.

However, looking south implied that some of the suckage operating down there at the moment was on its way. It didn't eventuate; tonight it is cold and clear. We in Wellington seem to be excempted from the usual pattern of cold fronts that come up the country at the moment. We have had one or two, but a few have been predicted to come storming up and then hit everywhere but Wellington.
How come big snowfalls in the South Island are such major news? The networks send people out to do live reports ("Whats it like out there?" "Its cold"), they find some cars sliding around to film, and some schoolkids who have a day off because the schools are closed. But guess what? They could recycle the reports from last year, and the year before that, and the year before that and no-one would notice, because this happens every year. In winter oddly enough.
I expect our Canadian to scoff at what passes for winter here when she arrives in a few weeks.

***
Sometimes the airshow comes to me

If NotKate insists on referring to me as a plane geek, then I have an expectation to live up to.

My normal morning on evening shift slumber on Tuesday was rudely interrupted by the echoing drone of an aircraft. A Wanganui Aero Work Ltd Cresco was topdressing (air dropping fertiliser) the farmland on the ridge across from us that forms part of Belmont Regional Park.
Naturally I got out of bed to watch. Topdressing is some of the most entertaining flying you are likely to see outside of an airshow. The requirements of the job mean that topdressers have to fly low, down valleys and over ridges, with tight turns to keep away from dangers and get back to the airstrip quickly to reload. The environment at low altitude is filled with hazards, like power lines and wires. In the picture below the Cresco is passing well behind the power pylon, but you get the idea.
Its not dangerous per se, but there is an elevated element of managed risk compared to other kinds of flying (there is a reason low flying is generally discouraged or avoided if not actually illegal in most places), and is highly unforgiving of mistakes. Its not like the aircraft is operating from a fully set up runway either. This one was heading back to a grass strip in the hills behind to reload after every pass.
In Rotorua we lived across the road from a farm, and one of my most vivid memories is of watching one of these (hows that for a fugly aeroplane! Also starred in "Mad Max 3 Beyond Thunderdome" if you've seen it) fly over my house so low after a topdressing run I thought it was going to take the roof off.

Being a nice sunny morning, I went into the park a little way for a closer look:

And returned to my car to find it covered in a very thin and even coat of super-phosphate fertiliser.

Topdressers are a routine sight in rural New Zealand, but aren't so common near the big cities.It was kinda fun to be able to watch one working on my doorstep.

By the way D3vo, the plane you jumped out of at Taupo is a descendant of the Cresco, hence the similar appearance if you noticed.

Being unusually out and about on a nice winters morning, I got a nice photo of mist filling the Hutt Valley below.
And a misty Wellington Harbour from the Maungaraki water tank.