Wow! What Weather!

Winter made up for lost time with a vengeance during the early weeks of August when the district was buffeted by the worst storm for years, leaving the surrounding hills covered with snow.

The peak of the storm found the city and district crippled by a six-hour power failure due to heavy snow damaging the high-tension supply line near Waikaremoana.

Less than two weeks later, the third heaviest fall of rain recorded at the Darton Field meteorological office, 4.45 inches in 24 hours, saturated the countryside, flooding large areas with surface water and bringing down countless slips on most of the communicating highways. The railway line was perhaps the worst affected, being closed for five days by a massive 6000 cubic foot slide. (Snow pictures by "Keen Photo News Reader").

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Pamoa Station, at the top of the Waingake hill, surrounded with snow after the storm. The homestead had 5 inches of snow on its front lawn.

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Young Malcolm Niven pictured in the snow at Pamoa Station

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After the heavy rain, this Waipaoa home has its own private lake.