Box of Light is made possible thanks to these visionaries:
Most people I spoke with last week felt some kind of guilt about enjoying the Dunedin summer while in the North Island it was more of the same: rain, wind, rain and more rain on top of already saturated ground. Now there is even talk of more cyclones brewing near the Coral Sea.
From a surf perspective the cyclone swell filled everyone's cup, and just as it was fading we had a large 20-second period 4.5m southwest swell hit the south coast. All the big wave spots lurched into life, but sadly I had to let this one go, so no photos sorry. I hear it was beautiful, powerful and lasted less than half a day. And Mt Hutt was hit with enough snow to open the ski lifts for a day ... in February? Madness.
Once that front and swell had gone through we were back to this ridiculous summer with water temperatures nudging 20°C and even warmer air temperatures right into the evening. Surfing in boardies is no longer a novelty along the coast. It's commonplace. I highly recommend it. Surely this water temperature won't last long.
There is an overwhelmingly scary downside to all the water temperatures along our coastline. We don't yet know what impact it will have on the species that depend on the cooler water. We hope to investigate that for you in the coming months – there are teams of people working to establish what it means.
We don't need to feel guilty though – soon enough we will be getting hammered by snow-laden southern storms wheeling right off the edge of Antarctica and it will be us battening down the hatches again.
Stay safe, get a boardies surf or two in, and we'll catch ya next week.
See you at the beach ... Derek
PS If you didn't catch up with our full story on the swell that graced our Otago coastline from Cyclone Gabrielle, then you can read that story and check out those photos right here.
Box of Light is made possible thanks to these visionaries: