Winter

A wild storm hit the South Island and the lower part of the North Island today, with huge waves, flooding, avalanches near Mt Cook, flights and ferries cancelled and power outages. Fortunately, it hasn’t reached as far as Auckland … yet, although we have had some very heavy bursts of rain.

I went for a walk in the Domain with my daughter this morning, which was really nice, did some work, and then generally pottered around.  I’m paying the price for the fast walk last night, unfortunately, so will have to take it easy for a few days.

We bought these daffodils last Saturday morning at the Parnell Farmer’s Market, along with another bunch that was more deeply coloured in the centre.  The second bunch died very quickly, but these ones have lasted well and bring a cheerful touch of colour to our living room.

There are 9,953 new community cases today, and the seven-day rolling average is 9,161 compared to 9,826 last Wednesday. The number of people in hospital is 767, including 20 in ICU. Today another 32 deaths have been reported, bringing the total number of publicly reported deaths to 1,927 and the seven-day rolling average to 25.