Ash clouds and earthquakes

NZ is on the 2nd round of the ash cloud from the Chilean volcano. Flights were distrusted last week due to the ash cloud. The cloud then cleared and things were back to normal for a couple days until the 'Roaring 40's' winds blew it around to Australia and NZ for a second time. Flights are now disrupted again for most of the airlines. Air New Zealand has made the decision to keep flying though. They have been flying at a lower altitude and flying extra distance to go around the ash where as the other major airlines have just been cancelling the flights as it is not economical to fly lower and to fly the extra distance. It is a good thing that Air NZ has been flying as I attended the Agile Australia conference in Sydney last week. If Air NZ wasn't flying, I would have been stuck in Auckland and missed the whole thing!

In addition to ash clouds, Christchurch received their 3rd major earthquake last week. Another 100+ buildings were declared uninhabitable in downtown Christchurch due to the 3rd major earthquake and they received another round of liquefaction as well. The NZ Army and the Farmy Army have been back on the job again with clean up. The Farmy Army is a huge group of farmer volunteers that bring in their big John Deere tractors to help clear all the liquefaction silt from the streets.

Today is the shortest day of the year in NZ. We have had a very mild winter this year. It has been in the 50's and 60's during the day and is only getting down to the 40's and 50's during the night. The ski fields down south are all still closed as they are not getting any snow. The weather is good for us but bad for the winter vacation economy. Australia has more snow then NZ right now!

Since the weather has been so nice, John and I took the ferry to Tiritiri Matangi Island this weekend. The island is about a 1 hour ferry ride from downtown Auckland and is a bird sanctuary. There are volunteer tour guides on the island that take you through the walks and tell you all about the birds and trees. Tiritiri is a pest free island that has some very rare birds, with some of them thought to be extinct at one time. If you are ever in NZ, it is a worth while trip.