Driving into the storm

Listening to: Drive-Breathe

Last night after work I drove into Wellington to pick up Fi from the airport.

From mid-afternoon the cloud had been thickening, and the day getting gloomier and darker. It was dark when I left, and while the air was still, the forecast was stormy.

It was at about Ngaraunga on the motorway when I noticed I could not see the airport or the Miramar peninsula, which are normally easily seen. Looking along, I could not make out Oriental Bay either.

A plane passed over the motorway toward the airport, indicating the wind had already turned to the south. Not far over the harbour its lights too disappeared.

It was then I noticed the line on the water. About halfway across the harbour the black water stopped at a line, and above the line was a mass of dark grey, tinted amber by the city lights.

Nothing else was visible.

The line was the forward edge of the southerly storm front crossing the harbour.

There had been a few spits of rain on the motorway, but at Kaiwharawhara the spits became a spatter.

When I started to pass over the railyards I crossed the line, the spatter became a deluge, and I was engulfed by the storm.