11/4/2026 breezy Saturday post cyclone

Following the calm that occurred last night at sunset, today has been noticeably different. The wind has picked up and has been pretty gusty with the speeds increasing this afternoon. 

I walked down to Kohimarama beach, and sat for a few hours on one of the benches just watching the whitecaps on the waves and watching the clouds race across the sky. The sun has been really hot and the bay has been full of wind surfers. One chap I was speaking to had been out for 2 hours skimming around the bay, in what were near perfect conditions. He didn’t appear particularly bothered by the weather reports and was pretty doubtful that it would come to anything, his reasoning behind that being the promised heavy rain hadn't appeared so therefore it wasn't coming in. that left me somewhat puzzled as you can imagine. The rain wasn't forecast until this evening anyway but he was local so I’m pretty sure he knew his onions. 

Last night when I was watching the sunset I noticed a large cruise liner leaving Auckland, today it is anchored off Rangitoto island. It is the one that Carey and Ray are supposed to be leaving Auckland on tomorrow,  but they have now been delayed til Monday due to the weather. The ship is anchored in the bay to ride out the storm before returning to Port in Auckland on Monday to pick up the passengers. They were given the option to stay on board and ride out the storm at sea, or hop off for the night and get picked up again on Monday. Me? I would have most definitely hopped off when it first came into port! 

While I was at the beach I had an alert come through on the phone that carries my New Zealand sim advising what to do and how to stay safe. The content of the message didn't frighten me anywhere near as much as the alert tone the phone made when it came through. It was unusually loud and took me somewhat by surprise and didn't quit for quite some time.  

The strong wind and the white capped waves in the usually calm bay mirrored my mood perfectly. I love the beach when there's a storm, although I probably won't be doing a stroll down tomorrow, because the predicted wind speeds are pretty brutal. Also advisories have been sent out to stay indoors and stay off the roads unless absolutely necessary. 

Morg messaged whilst I was at the beach asking if I needed anything which I didn't as we stocked up in the week. I left it a while longer and decided I had had enough because the sand was blasting my face and it was starting to get a little sore, so I left my bench and went to cross the road, as I did Morg pulled up in the truck so I couldn't have timed it better if i’d tried. I hopped in and we drove around the corner to the Lodge. He'd brought down some of the fruit I'd put in the bags which he'd left at his house, so I'm more than sorted for whatever the weather throws at the north island tomorrow. 

He's all sorted too and picked up some groceries to get him through the week for work. I'm all sorted for dinners for the week thanks to my excellent forward planning. He stopped for a cup of tea before heading off as the clouds started to roll in really quickly and he wanted to get Mildred in from outside before it rained.  It was nice to have a little chat, and when he went I made some dinner. While I was eating it, Peter knocked on the door. He very kindly handed me a torch in case the cyclone knocked the power out. They are such lovely people and a torch is not something I even thought about. 

My phones and laptop are all fully charged, although I doubt they'll be much good  if the power and wifi networks drop out. 

The sky tonight was a weird pale lilac colour, and when the sun dropped it was like a fireball. There are some beautiful photos doing the rounds of the skies the last few days. Some bright and colourful others dark and moody

This time of year the skies are just mesmerizing both sunrise and sunset, Si and I love that part of being here in the autumn. 

At 2000 the rain came in and it was really strange, there was very little wind but it was lashing down. And there is that beautiful smell that comes with fresh rain. The wind is due to show itself in the early hours so after a nice hot shower I wrapped myself into one of the lovely fluffy dressing gowns and settled in to watch a film, the cunning plan is to tire myself out and hopefully sleep through the night. The main storm is due to hit us around mid day tomorrow. 

I had a chat with Cheryl as she came to check I was ok and to reassure me a bit which was lovely of her. I mentioned the wave height as it's supposed to get between 6 and 8 metres at high tide. They've not flooded in the twelve years they've been here so that was reassuring. Just in case I've put my backpack up on the work top. The fact that there is a large step up onto the unit is irrelevant. I need to keep my radish trousers dry at all costs. The alerts have been coming thick and fast, and every time I've almost jumped out of my skin. Cheryl was saying that the frequency of them is causing a lot of distress to the elderly in particular, add to that the fact that every tv channel is covering it, the poor buggers must be scared wireless.

I'm hoping that the whole thing is a bit of a damp squid to be honest, the anxiety levels aren't the best as it is. 

Much Love

Mrs Leonard

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