Smoke Gets in My Eyes

Marlborough had a huge fire. Started overnight last night and by morning was out of control. I woke up to huge billows of smoke only 2km from my place. Fortunately I have a big river between the fire and my place so I'm quite safe for now. The wind wasn't behaving though, and kept fanning the fire. It's calm now so hopefully the fire will dampen down overnight.

I went down in the afternoon with Ricky, and took a series of photos. We watched the helicopters with monsoon buckets collect water and disperse it on the fire. One helicopter crashed this morning - a gust of wind caught it while it was collecting water.  Fortunately the pilot was unscathed.

You can see the rest of my photos on my blog...

http://robyncarter.blogspot.co.nz/2015/02/fire-at-northbank-onamalutu.html