News from Nelson – December 2 2011

Hi everyone,

No probs for us with the storms, but quite a few Nelson and Tasman people got stickered. Most were told they were OK or not on the 23rd, so many were allowed back in to their houses for Christmas, which was great (Kel & Dunc, Ellie & Greg). I think there is still about 40 houses which are still red stickered. Horrible for their owners, but I think the councils have been appropriately cautious. The Chch experience has provided a good assessment process, and many of the Nelson & Tasman staff have helped out in Chch so are well aware of how that process should work. Logging and land clearance was the cause of a lot of the slips :-(

I am teaching summer school, and so went from finishing one course to starting another over a weekend. I started with over 100 students, but this has whittled down to 80 as they have found the course a lot more demanding than they thought. The course runs in just under half the time as a 'normal' semester (the same learning packed into seven weeks over summer as is normally delivered in 15). My new tutorial assistant is going well, and coping with the workload, so that’s all good.

In addition, I am trying to get a head-start on my Masters study, and am finding that quite hard to get onto with everything else that is going on.

Jan’s search for an Electrical Engineer continues – no bites still. In the New Year he has some different tactics to apply, and will see if they net any results. 

The house is slowly getting finished off; Jan has been terminating all the data points in the house, and has put up some more smoke alarms. We still have to seal the back of the laundry bench, then we will nearly be at the stage where we can get our CCC. However, our builder has to come back and do a couple of fixer-uppers for us early in the New Year. Then we can have the Inspector back for a final check.

We had a lovely Christmas Eve celebration with Tina & Jeremy, Otto & Lara. They have come to stay for ten days or so, On Christmas day, my folks, my brother and my sister were all here for the first time in ages. We had a very relaxing day with a BBQ and salads (and Christmas cake, of course!), except for poor Tina, who had a cold. Uncle Norman was not well enough to make it, which was pity, and Tessa couldn’t come down as she has damaged her knee.

John has escaped and headed up north to house sit for a friend for ten days. However, in a couple of days Tanja arrives with Lars and a friend of hers, Adrian (whom we haven’t met yet). So we will have a house full! 

We have caught up with Jenny L who is at her folk’s place over Christmas, and hope to see Megan, Sam & Moose and Gary & Karen whom we think are all in Nelson for the break too.

Jan & I are up in Welly for the weekend of the 10th of Feb, and yes, it would be great to catch up with anyone who is around. We will be flying over but should be able to borrow one of Tina or Jeremy's cars so will be somewhat mobile. We have a few trips to Welly planned next year.

Also a party at our place on New Year’s eve – about 6pm onwards. BBQ, BYO. All welcome :-)

Right – I think that’s all for now, aside from wishing all the party season’s birthday people a wonderful coming year: Gareth, Christél, Wayne, Christian, and Jennie.

Catch you all again soon.

Alles liebe!

Jan Kuwilsky & Sam Young

Update on the weather

We are OK. There are five creeks between us and the highway, and four of them were up yesterday. The only one that wasn't really high was the Roses Road one (the drainage creek in our valley). There are no slips on our place, none down the valley, but lots of little ones on the Moutere Saddle. Our road is muddy and very slippery, but intact. But basically because we are a short, dead-end valley, we didn't get the volume of water to cause the damage that others did. The luck of geography.

We are pretty self-sufficient; the drains have worked as they should, all our roofs feed into water tanks, and the overflows are piped away well downhill. Plenty of clean drinking water (!) and no power outages. We haven't been generating electricity as there's been no sun for the PV cells - and we put the fire on to heat some water as the solar hot water system wasn't getting sun either, but the grid-tie system means we can pull from the grid when we aren't generating, so we were fine :-)

It also sounds like "driving" after 8am yesterday morning in Nelson was pretty near "stopping" instead; Richard Kempthorne was saying on the radio that journeys that normally take half an hour were taking three hours. Kathleen & Frits who live along Whakatu Drive said they were watching people on their way into town just sitting in their cars for ages (some apparently ran out of petrol, they were waiting so long).

Jan was up in Auckland yesterday and Wednesday, but he got home OK last night at 6. The Wairoa was still up at Appleby Bridge, but the bridge was open. Still some surface flooding.

We are just fine, but I am not travelling today; Civil Defence are asking people not to travel unless it is essential. The traffic load means that emergency services can't get through, and the bow waves from cars are damaging property. Aside from the treacherous nature of the driving itself!

And take a look at the Maitai - from 'normal' to yesterday (from Stuff at http://static2.stuff.co.nz/1323907641/157/6145157.jpg):

Thank goodness for having had the dam at the top to control the release of water is all I can say!
Cheers

Sam

Wild Weather in Tasman & Nelson

Hi all,
We are fine here, but the area has had some wild & woolly weather for the past two days. I was not able to get to John's funeral today due to flooding & road closures, but that is the only way the weather has affected us here. 

Of course the dogs keep expecting me to be able to open a door into summer, but they keep being sadly disappointed with the rain each time I open one :-)

You can check out photos of the floods at http://tvnz.co.nz/national-news/photogallery-nelson-tasman-weather-4641156 or http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/image.cfm?c_id=1&gal_objectid=10773423&gallery_id=123105#8402984 and some updates at http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/93780/roads-gridlocked-in-nelson